Commentary: County boundaries have no bearing on wilderness

(Al Hartmann | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rugged country of jumbled sandstone caprock in the Molen Reef area of the San Rafael Swell. A series of oil and gas leases offered by the BLM could threaten parts of Molen Reef an area that rock art enthusiasts say is ripe with pictographs and other cultural artifacts. I grew up in Price, Utah, just an hour from the San Rafael Swell. Any decisions that could impact this part of Southern Utah catch my attention. If repetition is critical to developing a “sense of place,” my love for the Swell stems from almost weekly visits throughout my childhood.

In May, 2018, Rep. John Curtis and Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced the Emery County Public Land Management Act…