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Show 110 On the day of the public meeting, the BLM offered to fly anyone who was interested over the Dirty Devil area to have a look at the land. Cotter Corporation provided its helicopter - though BLM personnel were acting as tour guides on the flights, Cotter hoped that people would become convinced that because the roads were already there, the Dirty Devil tract didn't meet wilderness criteria. The Dirty Devil River cuts through steep-walled, slick-rock canyons and desert country. People viaiting for helicopter rides drifted into separate groups according to their convictions about the wilderness issue - opponents from around Hanksville or areas like it; supporters viho had come from many parts of the state. At times hostility between the groups rose to the surface. Dick Carter, a representative of the Utah Wilderness Association, stood beside a 600-foot cleft in the rocks looking at the river below. Nearby a woman environmentalist sat writing notes she vianted to present at the meeting that evening. The woman, Margaret Pettis, remembers, "Dick was standing out near the edge, and a couple of guys walked up to him and started to engage him in a conversation. They were making statements about what wilderness would do to the area, opposing it. Dick responded, 'Well, fortunately, there are other people on this planet who feel a need for wilderness, and this may be one of those areas.' "The man responded to him, 'Well, in about a minute there's going to be one less on this planet.' He did not say it in a joking way, he said it seriously." |