This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Rep. Rob Bishop recently unveiled his draft legislation for the public lands of eastern Utah — what he calls the "Public Lands Initiative" (PLI). Unfortunately, it is a fossil fuel development bill that would roll back wilderness protection and further the state's land grab efforts.

The PLI actually grew out of a congressional hearing on America's Red Rock Wilderness Act in 2009. First introduced by Utah Rep. Wayne Owens, the act would designate roughly 9.5 million of the 23 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in the state as wilderness.

At the 2009 hearing, the Utah senators and representatives testified in unison that the act should be put on hold while they were given a chance to resolve Utah's wilderness issues.

Seven years later, the PLI shows that the delegation has failed.

The draft PLI is an assault on our public lands. It dedicates more land to permanent fossil fuel development than it conserves as wilderness. It opens up lands currently managed like wilderness for coal mining and oil and gas drilling. In fact, less public land would be managed as wilderness than is the case today. The land it does designate as wilderness includes unprecedented caveats and loopholes.

It also completely fails the Bears Ears region. Parts of Bears Ears would be dedicated to oil and gas, uranium or potash development. And the bill designates a vast network of dirt trails for off-road vehicles that would facilitate more vandalism of cultural resources.

Finally, the PLI shamelessly furthers the state of Utah's land grab fever by giving away thousands of miles of dirt roads, two-tracks, and cow trails as "highways." And it gifts the state and counties tens of thousands of acres of public lands for pet projects.

This one-sided affair is opposed by Native American tribes, outdoor recreation interests and conservation organizations. Support is mustered only from the usual anti-wilderness suspects such as the fossil fuel lobby.

What we have is déjà vu all over again.

In other words, we've seen such bills before. Over a dozen times across two decades, in fact, the Utah congressional delegation has conjured up bills written for a small number of southern Utah's local politicians representing less than 5 percent of Utahns. All were bills that failed to recognize that these lands belong to all Americans — to you and to me. For that reason their efforts have always crashed in Congress.

In contrast, during the same period two Utah wilderness bills have succeeded: both recognized the public's role in land management and both had the conservation community's support.

While the PLI's vision might be red meat for a few, its radical provisions will not pass Congress and would not escape a presidential veto.

But there is a silver lining to all of this. The PLI's failure is likely to result in President Obama designating the Bears Ears National Monument, as requested by the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Northern Ute, and Uintah and Ouray Ute nations. Twenty-five Native American tribes with ties to the Bears Ears region have expressed their support for protecting this living cultural landscape.

The Utah delegation knew that a one-sided proposal would force the president to act. Now that we have seen the failed PLI attempt, we urge President Obama to act quickly to conserve the Bears Ears.

This is an outcome that two-thirds of Utahns and large numbers of San Juan County residents have already said they want. If it happens, state political leaders should join with us in celebrating the protection of America's most significant threatened cultural landscape.

If they choose to rant and rave instead, it will only add to the poisonous political atmosphere reflected by Phil Lyman's illegal off-road vehicle protest ride or the seizure of Malheur by armed extremists. That will also make it unlikely that there will be future agreement on Utah wilderness because their rhetoric will not allow it.

The time has come for Utah's politicians to recognize that these lands belong to all Americans and that ideologically-driven, anti-public-land legislation like the PLI is, and always has been, doomed to failure. With this turn, then we can truly start the difficult work of resolving differences to benefit Utah and America's red rock wilderness.

Scott Groene is executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.