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Show Jack McClellen was watching them both. McClellen and his wife are probably the leading conservation family in Salt Lake. He is a quiet, intense appearing man, who in actuality is quite relaxed and extremely intelligent. At one-thirty, when the hearings started again, Ken Slight's was the first name called. As he approached, Neilson stood up. "Didn't we hear from you in Escalante, Mr. Slight?" "Well, yes," Ken replied, grinning his grin, "But I was representing the Utah River Guides there, and here I'm only speaking for myself." A bit of gumshoe flomboozle oratory followed, which only Ken Slight could deliver. P.D. Fletcher spoke next. He represented the rock hounds, pretty near a thousand, well maybe 4000, he guessed. Anyway, when P.D. stopped shaking in nervousness, he concurred with the BLM, probably because it seemed like a pretty good thing to do. William Moundsay, of Evergreen, Colorado, also a river guide, was allowed to speak after he begged off in the same manner as Ken Slight. Nearly a dozen representatives of the Cache Council of Environmental Quality followed, all endorsing the Sierra Club proposal. It was beginning to get boring; everyone was for the Sierra Club idea, and against the BLM. The Moab regional BLM manager had been holding the microphone for the speakers for four hours or more, all the time furiously chewing his gum. The chaw pace had slackened considerably by now. One of the other BLM men who was constantly writing had stopped. Neilson was looking over the roster to see how many more speakers there were. And the tape recorder went round and round and round. But then Margorie Ure, a bespectacled Skyline High School student spoke, presenting Neilson with a petition of 594 signatures. She told how she had gone to Escalante, walked down the canyons, and how incredibly beautiful she found it. Walking, she said, "made it all worthwhile." Roads, signs, tables, would spoil the character of Escalante, she said. "I don't know if my words will influence you, or if the opinions of 594 students will influence you; I just want you to remember when you make your decision, that this is a little bit of my land." Wow, everyone was thunderstruck. Frank Erickson jumped up and applauded and everyone was on their feet. The little girl marched off the stage to crashing waves of applause. Richard Synder, Ed Abbey, Paul Salisbury, and Noel de Nevers also testified before the hearings closed, but the peak of emotions, the most concise statement of what it was all about, occurred when Margorie Ure spoke. There wasn't really anything more to say. So the hearing ended. Neilson said that the BLM would consider all facts, all views presented, judge them according to criteria resolved to be in the best interest of all Utahns, and that in due time, say next year, decisions would be announced in the government record, whereupon you could appeal, protest, etc., in writing to the BLM if you desired, and they would again take your view into consideration before making a final decision. So everyone went home, most of them having heard Neilson's speech before. They were neither particularly happy, nor particularly sad. The Bureau of Land Management did not seem disposed toward the wilderness proposal, but then a great number of people, over a thousand counting the two petitions entered, had gone on record as favoring the Sierra Club proposal. The only thing to do was to sit and see. An appeal could be entered if the primitive classification was denied, an injunction could be sought if all else failed. Among the conservation people there was a sense of relief that this battle was over, but the awareness that an infinite string of battles lies ahead. They can breathe easy for a moment, but dare not drop their guard. Conservation is the new revolution. Gone are the folk who like to snap pictures of the Grand Canyon and the bird-watchers. Gone are the nature walks. To be involved in conservation today calls for a new frame of reference, a new life-style, a goal of living with the earth as a part of the eco-cycle, instead of positioning oneself as superior to it. The Earth - it's all we've got. f'if |