Activity Report Explorer

Cascade Volcanoes • Entered by Laurie Kerr on April 21, 2023

Red Rock Wilderness Act Meeting with Legislator

April 20, 2023

Key Issue: Wilderness & Monument Designation/Protection
Activity Type: Advocacy (rallies, lobbying, meeting decision makers, letters/calls/emails)
Key Partners: Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance/Loo Wit Chapter Sierra Club/Mountaineers
Landscape/area: Bears Ears National Monument (BLM) (1351837 acres)

Short Description of Activity

Jenny Holmes and Laurie Kerr met with Tim Gowen, Deputy District Director for Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. Jenny is also a member of our Broads chapter.

Reflection/Evaluation

This was my first meeting with the new congresswoman, Perez and I facilitated the meeting.

Meeting with Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez’s Deputy District Director, Tim Gowen, Deputy. The participants were Laurie Kerr of the Cascade Volcanoes Broadband of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness (Battle Ground, WA) , Lehman Holder (Vancouver, WA) of Loo Wit Sierra Club, Richard Curtis (Ethel, WA)by phone, a member of the Mountaineers, Sierra Club and other organizations and Jenny Holmes (SUWA)

Tim formerly worked as a rafting guide in Utah and lived in Moab; he has been on over 50 river trips including in the Colorado, Yampa, Labyrinth Canyon and Cataract Canyon. Southern Utah is one of his “favorite places in the world.” He was also a small business owner of a food manufacturing business. He helps manage the Vancouver office and his portfolio emphasizes small business.

Perez wants to cosponsor bipartisan legislation. Tim asked what kind of uses were allowed and not allowed in Wilderness. He seemed to appreciate the value of having a few places left wild on a personal level but didn’t speak to where his boss was at on wilderness protection.

Perez is focused on supporting small businesses. She would probably like to see a compromise on public lands in Utah that brings industry and environmentalists together. We briefly told the story of the failure of the Rep. Chaffetz’s (UT-R) Public Lands Initiative that was billed as a “collaborative stakeholder process.” It was not. Tim asked what the recreation community thinks of ARRWA. Are they in favor of it or mostly opposed? In looking at the ARRWA map he seemed concerned about people not being able to access the lands. Would roads be closed?

Perez supports the timber industry and is in Tim’s words, “pro-extraction.” He was excited to share an example of the stakeholder based Bear Ridge Community Forest in Ilwaco, WA where sustainable timber harvest will help finance buying land to protect drinking water as a “win-win” for the economy and the environment. He thought it would be good to see something like that in Blanding, the most conservative area of San Juan County. Perez views nuclear energy (the new “safer” kind) as part of the solution to climate change and as a source of “clean, abundant and affordable” energy. (See https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-nuclear-energy-good-for-the-climate/a-59853315)

Asked if areas in ARRWA would tie-up important uranium deposits that could be needed in the future for (an assumed) growing fleet of nuclear plants. Tim was very aware of the conflicts around and local opposition to Bears Ears and asked about the carve out for uranium mining. Didn’t mention Rep. Curtis’ (R-UT) anti-ARRWA letter. Seems likely that Perez would want to collaborate with him on nuclear. Tim wasn’t familiar with 30 x 30 and how a desert region would contribute to achieving the goal of protecting 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030.

Perez will face a tough re-election against the Trump Republican she narrowly beat. Protecting wilderness didn’t appear to be on her radar screen as a climate solution and unlikely will be.

Conclusion: Unlikely to cosponsor. She will be facing the same challenger she beat for her next election. It appears that she wants to be known as an advocate for small business and business in general, who also cares about climate change. Many environmentalists in the district are just glad to have someone who will at least talk with them, unlike the former third district representative.