No New Wilderness In Wyoming
None of the 18 back country areas in nine states highlighted in an interior department report yesterday as deserving protection as national conservation or wilderness areas are located in Wyoming. During a news conference from Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar revealed a preliminary list of areas encompassing over 6 ½ million acres that are managed by the Bureau of Land Management where there is what he called significant local support for Congressional protection. Salazar says it wasn’t because of disapproval of such designation from Wyoming leaders that no areas were selected there. Salazar told reporters that the lands, forests, rivers and canyons that they manage are a huge economic engine in the west where outdoor recreation contributes as much as a trillion dollars to the US economy each year and supports more than 6-million jobs in the United States. States containing the recommended areas include Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
