Dear Mayor Workman, In a process that involved the public and Utah's congressional delegation, three wonderful wilderness areas were set aside in eastern Salt Lake County in 1984. The Mount Olympus, Twin Peaks and Lone Peak Wildernesses protect some of Utah's most beautiful alpine terrain and sensitive watersheds. Another process was held in the late 1990s, during which US Forest Service solicited public comments on how to manage roadless forest lands. This process elicited more than two million comments--one of the largest outpourings of public opinion ever--and the vast majority of these comments favored protecting roadless areas. Substantial roadless areas border the three existing wildernesses in Salt Lake County. By contrast, Salt Lake County, under the former commissioners, submitted secret highway claims to the Utah Attorney General who then sent these comments along secretly to the US Secretary of the Interior. No public consultation occurred to establish whether any of these claims is valid or serves any useful purpose today. These secret demands submitted by Attorney General Jane Graham under the aegis of a repealed law, RS 2477, were an offense against proper, open procedure and work against important public values. These values include plant and animal habitat, watershed protection, solitude and challenging recreation. All these values would be diminished or ruined by the network of useless and largely spurious highways currently claimed by Salt Lake County and the State of Utah. I urge you to strike a blow for open processes and the people's interest by rejecting these claims and asking the State of Utah to remove them from the maps of highways claimed under RS 2477.

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