FIVE ARIZONA WILDERNESS PARCELS
TRANSFERRED
TO BLM
Mt. Tipton Wilderness
September 27, 2007
The Wilderness
Land Trust announced today that it has
transferred five more inholdings in
Arizona to the Bureau of Land Management:
Three in the Mt. Tipton Wilderness, one in the Wabayuma
Peak Wilderness, and one in the Swansea
Wilderness. This brings to 47 the total number of
parcels the Trust has transferred to federal ownership
in Arizona.
The 31,320-acre Mt. Tipton Wilderness
was established by the Arizona Desert
Wilderness Act of 1990, legislation which followed
the original Wilderness Act of 1964 in stating that
there shall be no “permanent road…no
temporary road, and no use of motor vehicles” within
the wilderness area. The Act did, however, state
that owners of private property surrounded by the
wilderness “should be given such rights as
may be necessary to assure adequate access.”
One
of the parcels in the Mt. Tipton Wilderness
exemplifies the threat posed by private property
within wilderness areas. In 2002 the BLM approved
a proposal from the owners of a 60-acre inholding
to construct a ranch house. The decision allowed “routine
motor vehicle travel” to the property over
wilderness lands. Montana-based Wilderness Watch
immediately appealed the decision and in February
2006 the Interior Board of Land Appeals overturned
the BLM decision sending the case back to the BLM
for more factual findings. The Wilderness Land Trust
then stepped in and bought the 60 acres, fairly
compensating the owners, avoiding years of litigation,
and protecting the integrity of the Mt. Tipton Wilderness
for future generations.
