4.2.5WILDERNESS
Current Setting
Wilderness, simply defined, is an undeveloped tract of land retaining its primeval character and influence without permanent improvements or human habitation. Wilderness areas are federally protected and managed to preserve their natural conditions, which generally appear to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature and the imprint of man’s activity is substantially unnoticeable; have outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive, unconfined recreation, be at a minimum 5,000 acres, where man is a visitor and does not remain. They may have supplemental values such as features of scientific interest, educational interest, scenic qualities, or historical value as well as ecological and geological values of interest.
The Wilderness Act of 1964 directed federal agencies to complete a three-step process to preserve lands that met certain specific criteria establishing them as “Wilderness”. The steps included: 1) an initial inventory to distinguish lands that clearly and obviously lacked wilderness character from lands that could possibly have wilderness values; 2) an intense study phase to identify lands that were suitable for congressional designation; and 3) a recommendation phase where federal agencies submitted recommendations to be acted upon by Congress. As of April 2007, Congress has acted on only one of the recommendations affecting Garfield County lands.
The Box Death Hollow Wilderness was designated by Congress in 1984 and contains 25,571 acres. All of this wilderness area is located in the Escalante Ranger District of the Dixie National Forest. The Box-Death Hollow Wilderness briefly became the center of controversy during debate over the Utah Wilderness Act of 1984 due to a company that was interested in drilling exploration wells for carbon dioxide. The ridge-top well sites and routes leading to them were cherry-stemmed out of the north side of the legislated boundary, but the project has not developed into production. No visitation figures are readily available for this wilderness. However, economic benefits to the area are considered minimal and would be offset by almost any search and rescue, emergency medical, or law enforcement event.
Need for Management Change
1. In as much as lands within designated wilderness have been withdrawn from natural resource extraction opportunities, land managers with jurisdiction over designated wilderness need to expand recreation, economic, scientific, and cultural opportunities and increase beneficial uses to the maximum extent possible for residents and visitors of Garfield County.
2. Safe all weather access, solid waste collection and disposal, human waste collection and disposal, search and rescue access, emergency medical access, and law enforcement access need to be provided for Wilderness areas.
3. Additional specific needs for land management entities managing designated wilderness may be included in sections describing Wilderness Study Areas.
4. Visual Resource management, Recreation Opportunity Spectrum analysis, OHV designations, Outstandingly Remarkable / Relevant-Important evaluation, Transportation Networks, and other management tools / criteria need to be consistent, to the maximum extent allowed by law, with comparable components of the Garfield County General Management Plan. Where criteria, protocols, and procedures have been used in development of the County Plan, no new processes should be used without County Commission concurrence.
Desired Condition
Garfield County desires:
a) Lands identified by the Garfield County Commission as eligible and suitable for wilderness be so designated.
b) All other lands be released from management for wilderness character and be managed in accordance with the County’s Land Use Plan.
c) The use and enjoyment of wilderness areas be expanded to the maximum extent allowed by law.
d) Federal agencies managing wilderness compensate the County for public services based on visitation and use.
e) Only those lands identified and approved by the County for wilderness, primitive, semi-primitive non-motorized types of recreation be designated for such use. Non WSA lands with wilderness characteristics need to be managed in accordance with Garfield County’s Land Use Plan.
f) All BLM lands not designated as wilderness be developed to the maximum extent allowed by law for commodity production and socioeconomic growth.
Policies, Goals, Objectives, and Criteria
Policy:It is the policy of Garfield County to support only those areas that have been inventoried, assessed and identified by the Garfield County Commissioners as having true wilderness character.
Goal:Work with State and Federal Legislators to gain support for and draft an acceptable wilderness bill that includes only those areas that have been recommended for inclusion into the National Wilderness System as approved by the Garfield County Commission.
Policy:It is the policy of Garfield County that all lands not recommended by the Garfield County Commissioners for wilderness designation be released from further consideration.
Action:Assist State and Federal legislators in developing legislation that will release lands identified as not recommended for wilderness from further consideration and will return them to Multiple Use/Sustained Yield or Commodity Production Management.
Policy:It is the policy of Garfield County to oppose any efforts by federal agencies to implement wilderness evaluations or inventories conducted after the following dates:
National Park ServiceDecember 31, 1978
National Forest ServiceDecember 31, 1984
Bureau of Land ManagementDecember 31, 1991
Findings
In the 1970s National Park Service units and the BLM completed studies that were part of a
thorough and professional inventory process that ensured no valid basis for questioning
wilderness inventory results would occur. The intent of the initial inventory was to carry forward,for additional study any lands that may have possibly contained wilderness characteristics. The inventory process was done in an objective, professional manner prior to the time whenemotion, politics, and lobbying interests drove the wilderness debate.
National Park Service units in Garfield County submitted recommendations for wilderness lands within their jurisdiction from 1971 to 1975. BLM submitted their final recommendation in 1991. In the mid 1990s Secretary Babbitt initiated efforts to over turn the objective recommendations submitted previously by Department of the Interior agencies and initiated a process aimed at lowering wilderness recommendation standards. Court action to stop the process was filed. The courts found that the wilderness recommendationprocess had ended and that no additional recommendations could be forwarded to Congress. However, the courts also found that federal agencies could inventory resources on their landsincluding wilderness characteristics.
The wilderness re inventory effort directed by Secretary Babbitt was politically driven and was inconsistent with previous criteria. As a result, it lacked the objectivity, professionalism, and integrity of previous studies and original recommendations. Therefore, discussions regarding Wilderness/WSAs consider only recommendations issued by Park Service units from 1971 to 1975 and contained in the Utah BLM Statewide Wilderness Final Environmental Impact Statement completed in 1991. Later inventories are found to be arbitrary, capricious, and lacking
factual data supporting wilderness claims.
As part of the original study phase, the BLM identified 528,958 acres of land in Garfield County suitable for additional study as WSAs. The Garfield County Master Plan in 1984 proposed that 111,053 acres of BLM lands in three WSAs and 31,000 acres in one National Forest District
be designated wilderness. That recommendation was reevaluated in 1995 and again in 2003. In
both of the subsequent evaluations Garfield County identified 100,311 acres as suitable for
wilderness designation. Maps depicting Wilderness Recommendations by the National Park
Service and Wilderness Study Areas recommended for Wilderness by the Bureau of Land
Management were reviewed in developing Garfield County=s Recommendations for Wilderness.
In 2007 the Garfield County Commission undertook a review of wilderness recommendations by Park Service units and identified 117,528 acres as suitable for wilderness designation. In additionCommission compared previous wilderness reviews with ROS analysis and GIS data. The comparison resulted in a refined wilderness recommendation for BLM lands.
Garfield County finds that the majority of WSAs in Garfield County lack outstanding
opportunities for solitude and outstanding opportunities for primitive recreation necessary to
qualify them for wilderness. Findings are supported by the BLM's 1991 Statewide Wilderness
Final EIS and are tabulated below. Garfield County finds the initial inventory, intense study
phase and the recommendation phase of the wilderness process competed prior to 1992 as the
most accurate evaluation of wilderness values in Garfield County. The County finds that only
those areas identified as Rec Ia in the Garfield County General Management Plan are suitable for wilderness designation. All other lands are not suitable for wilderness and should be managed in accordance with the County's Land Use Plan.
Wilderness Table 1 summarizes agency study areas (lands identified in the original inventory as
possibly containing wilderness values) and Garfield county's finding of land that qualify for
wilderness designation and near wilderness management.
WILDERNESS TABLE 1
AgencyDesignatedWildernessRec Ia Rec Ib/Near
NameWildernessRecommendationWildernessWilderness
National Forest Service25,571ac. 0 ac. 25,571 ac.38,922 ac.
BLM 0 ac.298,411 ac.100,281 ac.71,737 ac.
Glen Canyon NRA 0 ac.184,320 ac.101,458 ac.62,300 ac.
Capitol Reef NP 0 ac. 63,272 ac. 0 ac.25,080 ac.
Canyonlands NP 0 ac. 17,639 ac. 16,070 ac. 0 ac.
Bryce Canyon NP 0 ac. 11,660 ac. 0 ac.11,240 ac.
Total acres25,571 ac.575,302 ac.243,380 ac. 209,279 ac.
Impact on Air, Energy and Water
Air
Energy
Water