But, of course, Congress cannot create wilderness. The Earth does that on its own. Over millions of years. Without asking anyone's leave.

Only Congress can grant federal recognition of wilderness. No president, Cabinet member or advisory board can extend that highest level of protection on their own.

But Congress can ruin wilderness, as well as other lands that deserve lesser levels of protection.

It can even ham-handedly remove from the reserves held in trust for all the people of the United States, now and forever, land that, for reasons ranging from complicated ecosystem preservation to simply awesome views, ought to be protected.

That is why the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act, which is to get its first formal congressional perusal today, should not be judged on the amount of land it supposedly protects, but on the amount of land it arbitrarily fails to protect.

Environmental activists have labored for years to win wilderness designation for millions of acres of publicly owned lands throughout the West, not because it should be wilderness, but because it is wilderness and should be so recognized.

Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Jim Matheson are promoting their bill to formally designate a paltry 200,000 acres of federal land, mostly in Zion National Park, as wilderness, even as it allows the sale of up to 25,000 acres of other federal lands in rapidly growing Washington County.

Backers argue that that is 200,000 acres more wilderness designation than environmentalists have been able to win in Utah before, despite years of intense lobbying.

But that arrogant attitude -- behaving as if wilderness were a gift of Congress rather than of the Earth should not be allowed to guide our thinking, or our laws.

There is already enough undeveloped private land in Washington County to allow its population to swell to morbidly obese proportions. A plan for the area's rational development must be fully worked out before selling any federal land to private developers can even be rationally considered.

To properly recognize its own human limitations, that is the path Congress should take in Washington County.

The Washington County Growth and Conservation Act is scheduled to be the subject of a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health -- Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman -- at 11 a.m. MDT today.