Take Action Now for Utah's Redrock Wilderness

Your support is needed now for America's Redrock Wilderness Act (ARWA). The
Department of the Interior has not reversed the Bush-era no new wilderness
settlement.

In a shady deal promulgated the same month the US went to war in Iraq in
2003, Interior Secretary Gail Norton signed away years of precedent and
thousands of hours of review by her own agency to Utah Governor Mike
Leavitt's demand that the Bureau of Land Management should no longer manage
approximately 2.6 million acres of wilderness quality lands for their
highest and best use: wilderness. In fact Norton's settlement of a suit
brought by the state of Utah committed her agency to a potentially illegal
abrogation of its responsibilities under the 1976 law that directs
management of BLM lands. She committed the agency to consider no additional
lands for wilderness protection even as public needs and conditions change.

On Secretary Salazar listening trip to Utah on April 26, he did not address
this critical issue. Secretary Salazar said, "I do not plan on making any
wilderness or monument without local support. . .America's Redrock
Wilderness Act is the wrong way to go. I prefer the county-by-county
approach."

If we do not take action to show him there is local support, his position
will diminish the example and bargaining power of ARWA and take wilderness
negotiations back to the years when county commissioners refused to
negotiate with environmentalists.

Please take action now. Send a message to Secretary Salazar along with your
statement of wilderness support. You'll find a prepared message below, but
personalize it to include a personal experience you may have had in a Utah
Wilderness Study Area that highlights the unique, pristine and unparalleled
beauty of our state.

Contact Salazar by US Mail, e-mail or phone:

Secretary Ken Salazar
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington DC 20240

feedback@ios.doi.gov

202/208-3100

Dear Secretary Salazar,

I support America's Redrock Wilderness Act (HR 1925/S 799) as do at least
162 members of the US House of Representatives and 22 senators. America's
Redrock Wilderness Act strikes the right balance between protecting Utah's
spectacular landscapes and valuable habitat and making resources available
on remaining BLM land for multiple uses.

As the political process for protecting Utah's wilderness plays out, you
have an important role to play in protecting lands that qualify for
wilderness protection. I urge you to review the potentially-illegal policy
established by former Secretary Norton in 2003 that removed interim
wilderness protection from 2.6 million acres of BLM land that your own
agency determined were wilderness quality and forbade BLM land managers from
considering wilderness characteristics in future land management decisions
and classifications.

Sincerely yours,

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