Utah don’t get no respect - even from our own!

I recently published a blog about the Sego Lilly, Utah’s state flower. While doing the research for the article, I wondered if Utah’s state flower was protected in any way. After all, every web site (including mine) points out how tasty the bulbs are. And although they’re not what you would call “threatened” as a species, they’re sometimes a bit hard to find. Queries to state agencies revealed that you can dig all you like. No problem.

Now, if the Sego Lilly had the status of, say, a flag lapel pin, we would have good ‘ol boys all over Color Country writing angry letters to the editor if anyone dared suggest digging them up for lunch.

But they’re not the only Utah symbol at risk!

I also recently blogged the plight of the Utah Prarie Dog. It seems the good ol’ boys in Cedar City would much rather have another water wasting golf course (they’re good for real estate values) than preserve an entire species. But it gets worse! The Associated Press reports that the citizens of Cedar City spent taxpayer dollars to send commisioners to Washington D.C. to plead their case that they they’re not being allowed to kill the Utah Prarie Dog fast enough because it is a threatened species. And our representatives responded! Utah Sen. Bob Bennett says it’s “entirely unacceptable” that housing projects are being held up because of federally protected prairie dogs in southwestern Utah.

Take that, ya little buggers!

But the final straw was that H.B. 246 to change the Utah State Tree from the Blue Spruce to the Utah Juniper failed in committee during the recent legislative session. Please note … the Blue Spruce is known in most places as the COLORADO Blue Spruce. It’s also their state tree and they do call it the “Colorado Blue Spruce”. See this U.S. Department of Agriculture page, for example.

So I checked into the reason by asking the sponsor of the bill why it failed. According to the sponsor, “the bill was strongly opposed by agricultural interests and the State Department of Agriculture … The Juniper is chained and burned to improve range land. … I placed intent language in the bill to say that no protection for the Juniper is implied or stated in designating it as the State Tree. However the ranchers were concerned that if it were the State Tree that radical environmental groups could claim that the designation itself protects the tree.”

In other words, the good ol’ boy conventional wisdom is that, “Ya cain’t run cattle where they’s Junipers! Whut good is land that ya cain’t run cattle on?”

The sponsor said he actually supported chaining Utah Junipers himself because “Chaining and burning doesn’t come close to harming it.” While I admit that Utah Junipers are tough little trees, it’s not the harm to the Junipers that is the main concern. Here’s what the Oregon State University Extension Service said about chaining and burning. (It seems that scientists pay a little more attention to science and less attention to politics in Oregon.)

“Bulldozing or chaining … resulted in disturbed soil requiring seeding, and they were costly. This approach also resulted in high nutrient losses and scalded or sterile soil after the piles were burned. Perennial plant seeds often would not germinate or establish under these conditions. Inevitably, this resulted in patches of thistles or other undesirable annuals, which grazing animals avoided.”

The protections afforded other native Utah plants and animals would suggest that the ranchers don’t have a thing to worry about.

But in the words of the State Song: “Utah … We Love Thee!!!“