By Matt Canham for The Salt Lake Tribune
The House signed off Wednesday on legislation that protects more than a quarter-million acres of Utah's redrock country, allows St. George more land to expand and tamps down an often-contentious battle between developers and environmentalists.
The Washington County lands bill was just one of about 170 conservation proposals rolled into a huge package that gained final congressional approval on a vote of 285 to 140. Utah's Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson voted for the measure and GOP Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz opposed it. The legislation now goes to President Barack Obama, who is expected to sign it.
The package designates more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness, the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 25 years. It included a number of Utah-specific proposals, but none with more impact than the Washington County bill crafted by Matheson and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah.
"This is a great win for Utah," Matheson said. "It shows that if everyone sticks with it and comes to the table with good ideas you can reach consensus."
The bill, which is five years in the making, allows the Interior Department to sell between 5,000 and 9,000 acres of non-sensitive land for development around the St. George area, while designating 256,000 acres as wilderness, making it off limits to future oil exploration, roads or buildings.
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