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The Wilderness Debate: A Road Runs Through It

By AAN Staff
june 27, 2003  02:42 pm
The Wilderness Debate: A Road Runs Through It
Under a 137-year-old mining law, land freed from the protections of official designation as a wilderness study area is land that anyone can run a road through. And once that road is worn and claimed, future wilderness designation is next to impossible. But subsequent clarifications of the law have failed to douse the controversy over what can be defined as a road. For the wilderness contingent, a road is a "highway" that accommodates all four wheels of a jeep, truck or car. For developers and their friends in government, a road is merely that which allows the passage of vehicles, including dusty old hiking trails. Ben Fulton describes the Utah politics playing out over these issues and their impact on the Bush Interior Department's plans to open wild, remote areas to access and development.
View full article at Salt Lake City Weekly