Advocates of a truce surrender

The Utah Wilderness Association has given up. The homegrown group advocated education, negotiation and compromise in Utah's wilderness wars. But after being "slammed" from both sides, the leaders of the group decided to end their quixotic quest.

"As long as it continues to remain a fight over whether or not we're going to win or their going to win, and they feel threatened by it, we're not going to communicate," UWA coordinator George Nickas told National Public Radio reporter Howard Berkes. "We continue the fight, and a lot of us love the fight and that's not going to get the wilderness and environment anywhere."

Reliance on the "silver bullet" of wilderness designation is a "last gasp strategy," UWA founder Dick Carter wrote in a letter to wilderness activists in Nevada that displayed the kind of candor that got the association in trouble with purists. "Designation of wilderness is almost counterproductive to the long term issue of ecosystem integrity," Carter wrote. "Our vision must be broadened beyond wilderness."

Carter founded UWA 17 years ago. He is taking time off to visit and think about wilderness. Nickas is moving to Montana to work for Wilderness Watch, a group that monitors existing wilderness areas.