Description
The UEC is a coalition of 17 organizations and 45 businesses representing 30,000 people. We were founded in 1998 to protect the fragile sky-island habitat so common on our diverse, high elevation National Forests in Utah.
We are a grassroots organization that has in a very short period of time improved the management of our National Forests in Utah through our effective statewide Forest Monitoring Program. Because of our work, populations of sensitive keystone species are being monitored and forest management is being adjusted to ensure that viable populations of these keystone species persist. However, these are temporary measures.
To support our vision for effective long-term conservation, we have also conducted the most thoroughly documented and ground-truthed inventory of Forest Service roadless areas ever completed for Utah. Roadless areas are those areas that, by Agency definition, meet the basic criteria for wilderness set forth in the Wilderness Act of 1964. Using a conservative interpretation of the Agency criteria, after four years of field work and 60,000 geo-referenced photo-points, we found that about 5.2 million acres of Forest Service land in Utah (out of a total of 8.2) still meet the basic wilderness criteria.
Instead of creating a wilderness proposal for all roadless areas in the state, the UEC evaluated each area in detail, assessing the species richness, value of the wildlife habitat, relative threats (that wilderness designation would stop) to identify the areas most in need of protection. We also researched, documented, and assessed relative levels of conflict from issues such as snowmobile playgrounds, designated ATV trails, difficult to manage boundaries, as well as conflicts from valid subsurface rights.
This detailed evaluation was done in meetings open to anyone in the public, and we seriously weighed all input. The result is our finely crafted wilderness proposal that protects the most valuable and threatened wildlife habitats while also eliminating the majority of conflicts and improving overall manageability of the proposed wilderness boundaries.
We know there is always room to refine this proposal; nothing is set in stone. We have been gathering excellent input from all sides to improve our Citizen's wilderness proposal. We encourage you to contact us so we can incorporate your ideas. We are continuously looking for new ways to protect the fragile, diverse National Forests in Utah, and we are confident that this proposal is the best starting point to gather support for this conservation vision.
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