Deals and delays for Dixie
After Turner cut grazing, irate ranchers alleged the Forest Service falsified data to support fewer cows. Ranching advocate Carol Greer of Boulder, Utah, says she found five copies of the Forest Service report, each with a different set of numbers. "The Forest Service is caught in a fib so blatant it will be pretty difficult to deny-but they will," says Greer. On behalf of the ranchers, state Rep. Met Johnson appealed Turner's decision and asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno for a federal investigation into the Forest Service study.
Environmentalists believe a new study is a waste of time. Says Ken Rait of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, "the Forest Service kowtows to local cattlemen while Boulder Mountain gets crapped."
*Heather Abel