The Drive for Protection (page 3 of 6)

An essay by Ray Wheeler

Parallel Realities Converge

Almost without exception every major national monument, national park or wilderness proposal for the Colorado Plateau has been bitterly opposed by local developers, politicians, and the corporate development lobby. Executive action has been necessary not because a majority of Americans oppose preservation of the Plateau's natural wonders, but because despite overwhelming nationwide public support for such protection, a powerful minority of local politicians, local developers, and corporate lobbyists, can indefinitely hog-tie protective legislation.

Throughout the past century there has been an eerie synchronicity between the continually escalating proposals of would-be developers, and the proportionately escalating counter-attacks and counter-proposals of environmentalists.

The larval stage of the Great Dream of damming and diverting the Colorado River, from the construction of the first Imperial valley canal in 1901 to the completion of Hoover dam in 1935--was mirrored by a parallel build-up of the national forest and national monument systems on the Colorado Plateau (1906-1937).

In 1935 and 1936, neatly bracketing completion of the epochal Hoover dam, came two events that were equally epochal for preservationists. The first was a 1935 proposal by the Utah State Planning Board for the creation of not one but three huge new additions to the National Park System in Utah: a "Four Corners National Monument", a "Navajo National Monument", and a 570 square-mile, 365,000 acre "Wayne County National Park". The following year the Utah State Planning Board added to its wish list a proposal for a gigantic 7,000 square mile, 4.5 million acre proposed "Escalante National Monument" centered upon the Colorado and Escalante river canyon systems. Together these proposals encompassed  most of the lands (along with one hell of a lot more) that would, decades later, be added to the National Park System.

The second epochal event was the publication by Wilderness Society founder Bob Marshall of a map identifying roadless areas in excess of 100,000 acres. The map was a blueprint for a national wilderness preservation system. On it the Colorado Plateau region encompassed the largest concentration of roadless areas in the lower 48 states nearly 20 million acres in just 6 huge blocks.

The Utah State Planning Office proposal was soon quashed by an angry mob of local developers and politicians--and forgotten. Bob Marshall's roadless area inventory never received wide public exposure, and was also soon forgotten. But both proposals had planted the seed for a Colorado Plateau preservation system of epic scale. And both proposals would be spectacularly resurrected after collecting dust for nearly three quarters of a century.

While there was no hint of environmental opposition to the Hoover dam project, from Hoover dam on every major industrial development proposal on the Colorado Plateau has faced opposition from an increasingly powerful national environmental protection movement.

Follow these links to:
Coming of Age
Turning the Tide
The Birth of a New Grand Plan