It was there, on Wednesday, that Bennett met with environmental-group representatives who have been sharply critical of his proposed Washington County land-use bill.

No progress was made toward reaching a consensus. But Bennett called the tone of the meeting "cordial" and on Thursday said he was willing to consider tweaking his draft bill, which calls for 221,000 acres of wilderness, protection for the endangered desert tortoise and protection of scenic vistas and waterways from Zion National Park.

"We can tinker with it a little more, but whether anything official comes out of it, I'm not willing to predict," Bennett told The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial board during a conference call.

The environmental groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, called it a start.

"We were encouraged by the meeting," said SUWA Executive Director Scott Groene. "We heard a willingness to have a discussion and try to reach an agreement on this legislation."

Bennett, along with Utah Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, rolled out the draft bill on March 22 in St. George, calling it the culmination of months of effort to break the longtime stalemate on wilderness in Utah and create a smart-growth blueprint for one of the fastest growing counties in the nation.

"Washington County desperately needs a long-term plan," said Bennett. "But since the vast majority of it is federal land, we can't plan for quality growth unless the federal government gets involved."

But environmental groups have panned the proposal, complaining that it doesn't come close to protecting what they label as 300,000 acres of wilderness-quality lands in Washington County. More than half of Bennett's proposed wilderness is within Zion National Park. The conservation groups also decry the proposed sale of 25,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management parcels around St. George.

But Bennett says his proposed bill goes beyond wilderness and other protections forged by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid for Clark County, Nev., which his draft is modeled on. "We've got more wilderness in this bill than any of the other stakeholders wanted," he said.

Still, Wednesday's meetings may have smoothed over the hard feelings that grew out of a process that the environmental groups say was less than inclusive.

Bennett says the intransigence of the environmental groups and their unwillingness to budge from their original demands marginalized them. But Groene says SUWA and the other organizations were effectively stonewalled by the Washington County Commission.

"The commissioners refused to provide us with any details until two weeks ago, which made it impossible to have a discussion," Groene said.

Bennett says the one thing everybody concurred on Wednesday was that it was time to get past such squabbles.

"We agreed we wouldn't waste any more time talking about the process, so we can move on," he said.

jbaird@sltrib.com