They argue that a steady stream of coal-bearing semitrailer trucks driving from the proposed strip mine between Alton and Bryce Canyon National Park along U.S. 89 to I-15 would discourage visitors and new residents. It's obvious they are right. The continuous rumble and safety hazard of a coal caravan - a truck every four minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week - would scare off just about anybody looking for a quiet respite or retirement home.
The justified outcry over a plan to strip-mine 2,600 acres of this scenic piece of Utah calls attention to a growing New West war. This battle pits the economic driver of the past, the destructive extraction industry, with the clean, environmentally conscious harbingers of future prosperity - tourism and outdoor recreation.
Kane and Garfield counties and the towns of Panguitch, Alton and Hatch should take the side of tourism in this battle. If the Bureau of Land Management approves the mine and its trucking plan, it will compromise the future economic health of the region.
Coal-fired power plants are rightly being called to account for polluting the air with mercury and other chemicals, for contributing to global climate change and to the soot that blankets the Salt Lake Valley and other Western cities. This hardly seems the right horse to bet on for the long-distance run.
On the other hand, outdoor recreation and tourism are growing consistently. Nationally, recreation contributes at least 60 percent of national forests' contribution to the GDP, almost quadruple the benefit of drilling and mining.
This stretch of historic U.S. 89 takes travelers along the Sevier River, through the Dixie National Forest, beside Navajo Lake and Duck Creek, near Cedar Breaks National Monument and into Cedar City, where the annual Shakespearean Festival draws many thousands.
The current and future businesses that serve visitors, from restaurants and gift shops to motels and recreation outfitters, would be devastated by coal-trucking through the area. It should not be allowed to happen.
