The Cedar Mountain Wilderness is located in northwestern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, just south of Interstate 80. The vegetation on the upper elevations of the Cedar Mountains is dominated by junipers (referred to as "cedars" by early pioneers). The foothill and valley regions include mixed desert shrubs.

Cheatgrass ''Bromus tectorum'', known as downy brome, drooping brome or cheatgrass, is a winter annual grass native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and northern Africa, but has become invasive in many other areas. It now is present in most of Europe, southe ...

is prevalent over large areas burned by range fires. The remains of an

aragonite Aragonite is a carbonate mineral, one of the three most common naturally occurring crystal forms of calcium carbonate, (the other forms being the minerals calcite and vaterite). It is formed by biological and physical processes, including pre ...

mining camp can also be found in the foothills. The Cedar Mountain Wilderness includes more than half of the Cedar Mountain Herd Management Area, where

feral A feral () animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in some ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s have grazed since they were introduced in the late 19th century. A survey conducted in December 1991 counted 444 horses, and parts of the herd can often be seen on the wilderness. The Bureau of Land Management fills watering troughs for the horses when springs dry up in the summer. This artificial water supply benefits other wildlife species such as

pronghorn The pronghorn (, ) (''Antilocapra americana'') is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American a ...

antelope. The

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

designated the Cedar Mountain Wilderness, in an effort sponsored by Utah representative Rob Bishop and the Utah governor, to block rail access to a proposed high-level

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons ...

storage facility on the nearby

Skull Valley Indian Reservation The Skull Valley Indian Reservation (Gosiute dialect: Wepayuttax) is located in Tooele County, Utah, United States, approximately southwest of Salt Lake City. It is inhabited by the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally reco ...

. The project was sponsored by a consortium of

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced ...

companies known as Private Fuel Storage. The project was killed in 2012 amid legal obstacles and substantial local opposition.Judy Fahys
Utah N-waste site backers call it quits
''Salt Lake Tribune'' (December 21, 2012).

References

* Lynna P. Howard, ''Utah's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide'' (Westcliffe Publishers, 2005) * Bill Cunningham & Polly Burke, ''Wild Utah: A Guide to 45 Roadless Recreation Areas'' (Falcon Publishing, 1998) * Bureau of Land Management, ''Utah BLM Statewide Wilderness Final Environmental Impact Statement: Volume II West-Central Region'' (BLM Utah State Office, 1990)

External links

Bureau of Land Management: Cedar Mountain Wilderness

Wilderness.net: Cedar Mountain Wilderness

Google Maps satellite view
{{authority control Wilderness areas of Utah Protected areas of Tooele County, Utah IUCN Category Ib Bureau of Land Management areas in Utah

See also

References

External links