Letter: Wilderness areas worth protecting

Monday, May 15, 2000 | 10:18 a.m.

As stated in a recent Associated Press story in the Sun, this region is of great historical importance. According to journals, the pioneers found this region to be some of the most challenging and most spectacular country that they traveled through on their journey west. Here, as in nowhere else in America, can we experience a landscape largely unchanged in the last 150 years.

This area is in need of protection. With increased visitation and threats of mining and geothermal development, National Conservation Area status with wilderness designation is needed to protect this region for future generations. That is why the 1.6 million-acre Citizen's Proposal for the Black Rock-High Rock American Heritage National Conservation Area deserves support.

The Citizen's Proposal designates all 11 wilderness study areas within an NCA boundary as wilderness areas as well as two proposed areas.

Protecting this entire area, which includes the Black Rock Desert to the east and the High Rock Canyon to the west, protects not only the trail and the sensitive sites around the trail, but the surrounding wilderness treasures as well. The experience by the pioneers in the Black Rock Desert and High Rock Canyon region was a wilderness experience.

ANNE MARTIN American Lands Alliance