Dear Editor,
I am a Grand County resident, residing within the Moab city limits. I pay a combination of taxes within the city and county as I am a homeowner, a wage earner and a consumer. For these reasons, I believe I have a vote in how the public lands in this county are used.
My primary reason for requesting that the Grand County Council do everything possible to protect wilderness in the county is because I firmly believe that the future health and well being of the citizens of this county will depend on the amount and quality of water that is available, both culinary and agricultural.
Protecting wilderness will prohibit development of industries that by necessity use large quantities of water in their processes. I believe the West will fall prey to water wars fought by competing industrial factions and the corporation with the most power over state government officials will win. By protecting wilderness now and forever, these wars may be stalled until new forms of sustainable power can be developed and the development of extraction industries will be abandoned.
My secondary reason for requesting the Grand County Council protect wilderness is because I love the wilderness that is in Grand County.
I moved here from a city specifically to enjoy the small town/big country aspect that this area of the United States offers. It is the wild-ness that needs protecting and preserving. There is more “eye candy”, “hiker glory” and “river wonderland” here than was ever available to me in states I have lived in up to now. They are priceless and they add immeasurably to the quality of life in Grand County.
Yet some seem ready to trade these unparalleled and diminishing wonders for the sake of industrial growth, all manners of pollution, blight and destruction for proposed monetary gains to county coffers.
I want to be a resident of a county that stands up to the pressure to industrialize; that finds creative ways to ensure that the wilderness within its boundaries is protected for the citizens today and far into the future; that promotes sustainable business growth instead of toxic, extractive boom/bust businesses; and county leadership that will be cheered by citizens throughout the United States for caring about protecting diminishing resources versus selling them to the highest bidder.
Carol Mayer,
Moab
