Wheres the wilderness?
Cannon’s previous San Rafael Swell bill in 1998, aimed at pleasing everyone, satisfied no one, and eventually languished in Congress. Officials in Emery County, which encompasses the northern half of the Swell, were wary of the Clinton administration, which had used the Antiquities Act to declare the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. Meanwhile, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the state’s powerhouse wilderness advocacy group, was gathering support for wilderness designation statewide. Utah county commissioners, angry and distrustful of the top-down approach, sat down with Interior Department representatives to draft a bill more acceptable to locals. Once the skeleton of the legislation was hammered out, city councils, off-road vehicle groups and other interested parties in Emery County were asked for their comments and approval. The state BLM and the Price field office, which did not support the previous version, gave their blessing. In February, the bill was b
