Senator presses Forest Service official over 122,780 acres of "recommended wilderness" in Manti-LaSalle plan

A senator on the record pressed a Forest Service official about the draft Manti-LaSalle National Forest plan, which the senator said "proposes 122,780 acres of 'recommended wilderness.'" The senator said the recommendation conflicts with the compromise reached under the Utah Wilderness Act of 1984 and argued that state and county resource-management plans appear to have been disregarded.

"The only way we get healthy forests is by having flexibility to perform active management of the forest," the senator said, arguing that designated and recommended wilderness, together with inventoried roadless areas, make active management difficult and could worsen wildfire risk for local communities.

The Forest Service respondent said the forest supervisor is scheduled to meet with county supervisors to discuss the plan and that the agency will report back after that meeting. The official also told the senator the agency "honors the county government" and works with counties in the planning process, while noting that tribes are treated differently as sovereign nations.

The senator specifically asked whether the 2001 roadless rule — which he cited as establishing prohibitions on road construction and timber harvesting across 58,500,000 acres of inventoried roadless areas — has helped or hindered wildfire mitigation. The agency official replied, "I don't think it was designed to help wildfire mitigation, sir."

During the exchange the senator asked for a written clarification of a terminology question about the difference between a "big C" and a "little c" cooperating agency, saying that term is not defined in law or agency guidance and requesting a written response because of limited time.

The official's answers in the hearing focused on process (a planned meeting with county supervisors) and on the agency's position toward tribal and county cooperation; no formal action or vote on the plan was recorded in the transcript. The next procedural step, based on the exchange, is the planned meeting between the forest supervisor and county supervisors and (per the senator's request) a written clarification about the cooperating-agency terminology.