Utah governor wants San Rafael Swell to become national monument

By C.G. Wallace

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s governor is asking President Bush to give the San Rafael Swell, a sandstone uplift in the desert of southeastern Utah, national monument status under the same law he and Bush had criticized former President Clinton for using.

Gov. Mike Leavitt made his request for federal protection of historic and culturally important areas in the San Rafael Swell during Monday night’s state of the state address.

In his campaign, Bush criticized how Clinton created 11 monuments, the most by any president since Theodore Roosevelt. Republicans, including Leavitt, called the monuments “land grabs” that did not have the approval of county and state governments.

Once the paperwork reaches Washington, Interior Secretary Gale Norton will have 90 days to consider the proposal and gather public comment before making a recommendation to Bush.

The remote desert area, about 140 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, contains Indian petroglyphs, spectacular canyons, bizarre rock formations and not much water.

Emery County Commissioner Randy Johnson said potential boundaries for the monument were discussed at a public meeting Saturday. The county’s proposal includes only the swell itself, not surrounding areas that environmentalists want protected, Johnson said.

Congressional leaders from Utah complained loudly in 1996 when then-President Clinton proclaimed 1.7 million acres of canyon land in southern Utah as the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. They worked unsuccessfully to overturn the proclamation.

The Clinton administration said it was trying to protect the area from coal development. Critics said Clinton, in making the announcement two months before the presidential election, was seeking to win environmental votes.

Al Mansell, president of the Utah Senate, said this process was different.

“This is coming from the people there,” said Mansell, a Republican. “It’s not the East Coast establishment coming in and telling us what to do.”

Rep. Jim Matheson, the lone Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, represents the area and said he supported the plan.

The monument would be on land that the Bureau of Land Management now controls.

Sierra Club environmentalists had not examined the proposal as of Monday.

On the Net:

http://www.canyonlands-utah.com/pages/sanrn.html

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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