Save Moes Valley

This is an update on what the Southern Utah Climbers Coalition has done over the past couple months in regards to our "fight" for Moe's Valley. We had a meeting with SITLA (state trust lands administration) last month (March 07), latest is.. they hired a mediator to communicate with us! I guess we were too opinionated. Good news, the head guy in Salt Lake just RETIRED and the head guy in the St. George office quit! In January I sat and yelled at the Salt Lake guy back and forth for over an hour. He didn't like it when I suggested that "come on, a 50 thousand dollar bonus a year isn't going to effect your judgment on land use?" BS He informed me he was making 250 thousand a year before he came to "help Utah" with land issues and he was doing it for a good cause! Yeah right another golf corse is really appropriate, you can hit the balls around the boulders! HUM ... See ya Rick, hope you don't decide to boulder in retirement, the rock will brake of and crush you like BAD karma! Good news is... no way in Hell is any one going to build in Moes.
A few months ago I went to the "Vision Dixie" meeting where the commissioners and governor were getting public input on where to put 250 thousand people by the year 2030. There were 20 tables and maybe 10 people at each table with a giant map in the center of each table. Every table had to put in parks, open space, commercial, residential, roads, transportation; we had to decide where the growth would go! It was a sad process; however I came for quite a different reason. I focused on bringing a map of Moes Valley around to all 20 tables and "educating" those whom might not know about the area. I interrupted each table and said I was campaigning for a good cause. I showed them the map of Moes Valley and told them how the ridge was going to be the center of the town with Biking, climbing, hiking and no desert tortoise preserves! After all was said and done all 20 tables had placed a large green oval over the entire ridge marking it as open space. Some tables had residential houses across the whole ridge line and I took them by the hand and changed their map accordingly. It was unanimous; the tables changed their opinion when they heard about Moes. Even the two tables that the SITLA guys where sitting at chose the valley to be open space : ) I was half way through my quest that night when the head of the whole jamboree came up and tapped me on the shoulder. I guess the SITLA guys saw what I was doing and complained that I was influencing people’s decisions. The guy asked me what I was doing "I responded, just educating people about the uses in this important recreational area." He replied "Good for you, I'm glad to see young folks get involved." At the end of the meeting every table got up and explained where they wanted to put 250 thousand people and every table had a green space over Moes Valley actually the whole 1000 acre ridge line. The commissioner running the event thanked the public for their participation and then commented as he pointed at ME, "I’m glad to see people are passionate about the land uses, I commend this girl for educating others!" I turned around and smiled at the table where the SITLA guys were seated. It was a couple months later that the two of them retired! (Coincidence? of coarse not but what a cool thought : ) ) There is a fight to fight and we CAN win! The SITLA offices are doing another environmental study and then the planning commision, city council, climbing coalition and SITLA will sit down and discuss the future of Moes Valley. For those of you that arn't familiar with SITLA, they were given land when Utah became a state. This land was to be used to raise money for education (leased). Only recently have they began to sell off mass chunks for development. Some how they got some nice chunks of mass acres and they have one priority, MAKE MONEY.
Here are some facts - only 9 states in the US have a State Trust Land Administration for this purpose. Of those 9 states only two of them have decided the best use of the land is to sell it for money. The rest of the 7 states have decided the best use is to hold it for future generations to enjoy. Utah and I believe Arizona are the bastard children, correct me if I am wrong!