There Is Common Ground

Attorney Steve Snow has a reputation for bridging divides and getting conservation results, including a 60,000-acre plan to protect the desert tortoise in southern Utah. Born and raised in St. George, Utah, Snow married his high school sweetheart, opened a law practice, raised four sons, and served his church in the U.S. and abroad. His passion for the environment led him to join the board of the then fledgling Grand Canyon Trust in 1990. Now retired, Snow is back on the board after a pause of nearly two decades. We asked him to take stock of the Utah conservation landscape and for tips on getting things done in a time of political polarization.

What first got you thinking about the environment?

I’ve always liked being out and I’ve always loved southern Utah. I guess I became more aware in the mid-1970s, when they were proposing a large power plant on the Kaiparowits Plateau near large reserves of coal. It received a lot of publicity because Robert Redford came out against it. Growing up in southern Utah, I knew cowboys, ranchers, and others opposed to environmentalists. They didn’t always have a lot of good feelings toward environmentalism, but the message of conservation resonated with me. I thought: this is worth protecting. We shouldn’t be fouling the Earth. That’s against my faith. This is something God gave us, we need to treat it with respect and save it for the coming future generations.

What conservation issues in Utah are most on your mind?

Public lands is my biggest worry for Utah — it’s evident with the shrinkage of the national monuments. Revoking the Staircase has hurt and will continue to hurt business in small places like Boulder and Escalante, Utah, places where tourists were coming to see the monument. I was thrilled when the Staircase was created, and many people in southern Utah who initially opposed it learned to appreciate it.

Another big worry is the drive to privatize. Utah thinks we could govern these lands better than the federal government, and that is just not true. State management would encourage privatization. The federal government does need to step up and do a better job. They need more resources allocated to the management of public lands. 

Off-road vehicles are a huge threat to our public lands in Utah. I go into an area I haven’t seen for a few years and I’m just shocked at what damage off-road vehicles are doing. I think they’re fine if they stay on designated trails and roads, but some leave these roads and create new trails, scarring the land. The problem is the desert doesn’t restore itself quickly; it takes a lot of time. 

And obviously water is another huge issue. 

You’ve been described as a “bridge-builder” in environmental conflicts. What's your secret?

You have to listen to what is worrying people. When you really listen and you get down to the facts, much of what they’re worried about is what we’re worried about. Unsustainability. They want to be able to make a living. There is common ground. Sometimes it’s really hard to get there. In my law practice, I learned that if you want people to settle their differences, you’ve got to get them talking about the things they’ve got in common. You have to listen to each other.  All too often with environmental issues it’s become so polarized that people just yell, they don’t ever try to sit and listen and try to solve problems. There’s a whole lot more in common on most issues than people think going into it.

You’ve spoken about the paradox of Utah’s natural beauty bringing about its destruction. How do you balance growth and conservation?

For years we thought that tourism might be the answer to development on a much more aggressive scale, but we’re beginning to love these areas to death. You can’t keep promoting Moab on television and then complain that everybody is going to Moab. There’s just too much promotion. You should have heard them complain when the shuttle went into Zion, but everyone who visits Zion from around Washington County now says, ‘Oh, it’s so much nicer to have those cars out of the canyon, and wildlife is coming back, it's like when we used to go when we were kids.’ Because there were no cars when we were kids.

At the end of the day, it’s just a few people making money off the development and it’s driven by dollars. The unintended consequences on the environment are never factored in by the governing bodies when they make the decision whether or not to approve development. That ought to be talked about more.

What’s it like to be an environmentalist in your community?

I have a lot of friends from a lot of different kinds of backgrounds. I think they just think ‘What is wrong with Steve? He’s an environmentalist and a Democrat,’ but they tolerate me.

I sit down and talk to them and they talk to me. I think being labeled an environmentalist is probably not as bad as being labeled a Democrat in Washington County. But it’s okay, I’m used to it. I used to get angry, but as you get older, you realize there’s not that much good that comes out of that, is there? The people you need to work with, you just make them angry. That just makes it harder. I’ve been in these fights before. Creating the reserve for the desert tortoise in the middle of the growth of St. George was not popular either, but I love where I live. Once in a while, you see a little change.