Cedar Mesa deserves wilderness designation Sen. Bob Bennett wants to expand the model for wilderness designation that he and Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson put together for Washington County. But now that Bennett won’t be returning to the Senate next year, the unprecedented progress he made in bringing various stakeholders together...

Wilderness/natural gas agreement wins praise from the Salt Lake Tribune “The epic battle for public lands pitting energy developers against environmental groups has yielded few compromises and even fewer agreements outside a courtroom. But the Bill Barrett Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance have managed to achieve both, to...

Historic Agreement will protect Desolation Canyon SALT LAKE CITY (July 29, 2010): Today, a coalition of conservation organizations announced they have reached an historic agreement with the Bill Barrett Corporation, a Denver-based oil and gas company. The West Tavaputs agreement ensures that the Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River...

The future of Cedar Mesa wilderness proposal unclear San Juan County residents who don’t want outgoing Sen. Bob Bennett’s land bill to die have formed a grass-roots organization, Friends of Cedar Mesa, to keep citizens in the loop while wilderness-designation discussions hang in limbo. Accommodating the seemingly perpetual arguments about...

BLM's new boss in Utah Juan Palma, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s new state director for Utah, says he is ready for the hot public-lands debates waiting for him. Palma, 55, took the oath of office last week to replace Selma Sierra, who retired. In remarks at his swearing-in...