OCR Text |
Show 109 have "outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation," if "the imprint of man's work is substantially unnoticeable," then that land is to be withheld from any kind of development or commercial use. No roads can be cut through it, no motor vehicles will be allowed on it; people may enter the wilderness only on foot. Some cattle grazing will be allowed, under strict controls, but ho mining or oil exploration can take place. Any development of the areas in question will be forbidden until the wilderness study is completed in 1991. This was good news to the environmentalists, but the states' rights supporters found the wilderness proposal a bitter pill to swallow. The BLM invited people of all opinions to come to public meetings concerning each tract of proposed wilderness. If opponents could convince the BLM that these tracts were not suited to wilderness classification, the tracts would be dropped from the study. In Hanksville, Utah - vihere Jan Knight's office is located - a public meeting was announced in May, 1979- People were invited to speak their minds on a proposed wilderness area along the Dirty Devil River. Even though the area was under study, a uranium mining company called the Cotter Corporation had cut roads into the region - some of them after the Federal Land Act was passed. The Cotter Corporation had a lot to lose if the area was set aside for the wilderness study; they wouldn't be allowed to drive in trucks or use heavy machinery, so their uranium explorations would come to a halt. The people who worked for Cotter, or viho provided services for the workers, would lose, too. |