A California promoter of “Eco-Challenge: The
Adventure Race” hopes to send up to 50 five-person teams running,
biking, rafting, canoeing and riding horses through 300 miles of
southeastern Utah’s deserts next spring. MTV cameras and other
media would document the 12-day race, which features environmental
consciousness as its theme. State economic developers love the
idea, reports AP; conservationists don’t. “This proposal makes a
missile drop look good,” says Scott Groene, an attorney with the
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Federal public-land managers
have not decided whether to grant organizer Brian Terkelsen the
necessary permits; in some cases an environmental assessment would
be required since the proposed race course goes through wilderness
study areas.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Does Utah need an eco-challenge?.
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