BY ERIC MOLVAR
Three years ago, Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) launched a complex effort to resolve public lands and wilderness issues across seven counties in eastern Utah. Committees were formed, some 1,200 meetings occurred and delicate agreements were brokered.
It was off to promising start. But this January, it crashed and burned on takeoff.
The discussion draft of the bill debuted to blistering condemnation from the two biggest conservation groups in the region the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Grand Canyon Trust. A prominent Native American group, the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition (a formal body composed of the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Uintah and Ouray Ute, and Zuni tribal governments) sent an open letter to Bishop, stating that the draft legislation was "woefully inadequate to address our needs" and "confirms the inequitable treatment of Tribes over the past three years...