Advocacy group
Letter links wilderness, threats of terror
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/12/2008 01:12:39 AM MST
A letter purportedly sent by two Utah legislators that links wilderness to terrorism actually was the creation of an advocacy group that wants oil and gas drilling to commence in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
A news release sent Thursday to a wide variety of recipients came from Americans for American Energy. The nonprofit Denver group claimed Reps. Mike Noel and Aaron Tilton wrote the letter saying efforts by Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-New York, to have 9 million acres of the state declared wilderness would "weaken America."
"How? Because it will hamstring our ability to produce American energy right here in Utah," the letter says. "That leads America to become more dependent on energy from hostile foreign nations - some of whom fund terrorist organizations that are right now targeting our American men and women in uniform."
Noel, R-Kanab, said Thursday he didn't sign the letter nor had he seen it. After a reporter read portions of it to the legislator, he said he supported its message.
"I put my name on all kinds of things," Noel said. "You just read the letter to me, that's the first time I heard it."
The electronic version of the letter includes mug shots of "radical New Yorker Maurice Hinchey," Osama bin Laden, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Iran President Mahmud Ahmadinejad over the line, "these terror leaders also want America to continue its foreign oil dependence."
Much of the letter's fury was directed at SUWA, an "extremist political group."
"Fueled by millions of dollars from out-of-state extremists and Hollywood elites, SUWA is working directly against Utah's interests," the letter says.
Tilton, R-Springville, said he had seen an early draft of the letter circulated Thursday. Though he hadn't actually signed it, he said he supported its positions.
Of particular concern, Tilton said, was alerting the public that SUWA and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management were attempting to have the 9 million acres included in Hinchey's Red Rock Wilderness Act declared wilderness through a BLM administrative action.
Tilton offered as documentation the BLM's analyses of non-wilderness study areas with wilderness characteristics in six recent draft management plans that cover 11 million acres of federal land in the state.
Those analyses, however, are the result of a federal court ruling. Tilton said he did not know that.
Tilton also said he didn't know if any of those draft plans appeared tilted toward land conservation or energy development because he hasn't read them.
But SUWA as an organization "has that agenda," Tilton said.
Ray Bloxham, SUWA field inventory specialist, said SUWA is "very up-front" about its focus.
"Wilderness is a resource like anything else," he said. "We are a conservation organization trying to get wilderness designation in Utah."
The Red Rock Wilderness Act was first introduced by Utah Democratic Rep. Wayne Owens in 1988 and passed along to current sponsors Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. The bill would protect public lands including the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and critical wild lands adjacent to Zion National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is one of many conservation organizations supporting the bill, which has been reintroduced in every session of Congress since 1989.
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