Utah Environmental Congress

2000 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2000 Results of the UEC Forest Monitoring Program

 

Second Year Accomplishments
  • The UEC completed the majority of its survey of roadless areas for the Dixie and Ashley National Forests. A total of 93 roadless areas were surveyed. Of those, 55 are RARE II areas and the remaining 38 are new areas found by UEC. These 93 areas cover a little over 2 million acres that are potential wilderness areas! Almost 40,000 photographs were taken of the roadless areas documenting wilderness characteristics as well as the impacts of roads, timber sales, mining, and ATV trails. The National Forest Roadless Area Inventory for Utah will be finished in 2001. The work remaining includes the completion of 5% of the Ashley National Forest; one small area in northern Utah that is actually on the Sawtooth National Forest; the Abajos and La Sal units of the Manti La Sal National Forest; and several areas on the Uinta and Wasatch-Cache National Forests. All of this piece-work will be completed this year.
  • The UEC staff provides comments on proposed timber sales and projects impacting wildlife and/or their habitat. These comments outline the potential threats that will occur if the project is implemented and provide alternatives and suggestions that are ecologically and biologically sound. The UEC follows up on all projects and administrative appeals are filed on projects that will harm the environment and violate the law. Litigation will be pursued if necessary to stop egregious activities on Utah’s National Forests. The UEC commented on over 82 projects in 2000 and filed eight administrative appeals.
  • The UEC held its Second Annual Conference in September of 2000 in Salt Lake City. Eight guest speakers from Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, California and Washington DC. Presentations were given on the end commercial logging campaign, Forest Service litigation, National Forest roadless area protection, and grazing on public lands. We were honored to have two of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s staff attend and speak on the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act, which Ms. McKinney co-sponsored.
  • In 1999, the UEC joined 11 other organizations in a lawsuit to protect the yellow-billed cuckoo as an endangered species. An initial determination has been made that a portion of the cuckoo population is worthy of listing under the ESA. The USFWS has until July 2001 to determine what portion of the population will be listed but it appears likely that all yellow-billed cuckoos west of the continental divide will be listed as either threatened or endangered. The yellow-billed cuckoo is native to Utah and breeds along the Wasatch Front in north central Utah, as well as along the extreme southwestern corner of the state. It is dependent on mature riverine habitat that has been drastically reduced by logging and grazing of riparian areas. Earthlaw of Denver, Colorado brought the lawsuit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
  • The UEC joined two other lawsuits in 2000. The first is a lawsuit against the state of Utah arguing Proposition 5 violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment by effectively eliminating the ability of Utah citizens to speak through the ballot box on issues regarding wildlife management. Proposition 5 passed in 1998 and requires a 2/3 super majority on any vote that impacts wildlife management. The state of Utah has failed to demonstrate a compelling need to require a 2/3 super majority on wildlife issues when all other issues require only a simple majority. Ironically, Proposition 5 itself required only 50% + one to become law. A local Salt Lake City attorney is handling the case. The second lawsuit is against the USFWS in an attempt to stop its efforts to allow a Trumpeter Swan hunt in, among other areas, Utah’s Bear River National Wildlife Refuge. Trumpeter Swans have been petitioned for listing under the ESA and current estimates place only 70 breeding pairs in the western United States.
  • The UEC was elected in 1999 to be the Utah State Delegate to the Governing Council of the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA) whose mission is to end commercial logging on all public lands. NFPA’s founding principle lies in the belief that individuals, organizations, and businesses acting in a coordinated, democratically structured alliance can achieve positive, lasting social and environmental change. At NFPA’s conference in 2000, Denise Boggs, Executive Director of UEC, was elected to the Board of Directors and serves as Treasurer.
  • One of the appeals UEC filed in 2000 involved the reauthorization of grazing on 36 cattle allotments and 6 sheep allotments. The renewal of these grazing permits would have reauthorized grazing on more than 690,000 acres of national forest lands in Utah for 10 years! In response to our appeal the Forest Service withdrew its decision granting the UEC its first appeal victory.
  • Another victory that did not require an appeal involved a chaining and thinning in a roadless area on the Dixie National Forest under the guise of a ‘wildlife habitat improvement’ project. The Forest Service attempted to push this project through without the required public review. The UEC objected and the project was pulled.
  • The UEC challenged the Fishlake National Forest Supervisor’s decision to allow a cross-country ATV Jamboree that would include routes through four roadless areas. The Forest Service pulled those four routes and in the future will complete an Environmental Assessment of the environmental impacts associated with this annual event.
  • The UEC has developed a slide show from the photographs taken during the roadless area survey. It shows the pristine roadless areas that remain and the threats they continue to face, such as logging, ATV abuse, and grazing. The slide show will be taken around the state in 2001 to educate Utah’s citizenry and foster support for a statewide forest wilderness bill.
  • The UEC gave three presentations in 2000. First, the UEC spoke at the Escalante Wilderness Project’s first conference on our roadless area survey and the misguided application of predator control in Utah. Second, we gave a presentation in Vernal, Utah to the Uinta Mountain Club on our roadless area survey. And third, we were invited again to speak at the First Unitarian Church’s Environmental Ministry on the end commercial logging campaign.
  • The UEC was asked again to represent the state of Utah in the Conservation Leaders Network (CLN) in 2000. The mission of the CLN is to provide support to county commissioners and other local elected decision-makers as they work to conserve our natural resources.
  • The UEC has produced a quarterly newsletter, the Sylvan Sentinel, which is delivered to all members and made available to the public at large via our web site. We also distribute it to several local outlets and various members distribute them in their local communities.
  • The UEC has a regular radio show during the public affairs hour on KCPW in Park City, Utah the second Wednesday of each month. A variety of issues are discussed and we generally receive phone calls regarding the topic after each show.