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Show A3 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, November 4, 2008 Resource plans approved for public land Continued from Page A1. have addressed issues that the two plans it replaces didn’t. We believe the plan is better because of Emery County’s participation and input and look forward to its implementation.” Peterson went on to say that county leadership was relieved that the plan will be implemented under this administration. “There has been a concerted effort made to stretch this process into another administrative term. Emery County believes that neither potential administration will be as sympathetic to our public lands positions as the current one has been,” Peterson said. Highlights of the Plan include: Almost no changes to grazing practices. Animal Unit Months available for grazing remain the same as current plans. A Designated Route Plan for the northern part of the planning area includes over 600 miles of motorized trail system, but eliminates cross-country travel. Clearly defines areas available for oil and gas leasing, and sets standards for developers of these resources. Recommends Wild and Scenic River Designation for portions of the Green River in Desolation Canyon and Labyrinth Canyon but eliminates the San Rafael River from consideration. Mandates that plans to manage recreation in highuse areas be completed within five years. The Approved RMPs became effective upon the signing of Records of Decision on Oct. 31 by Department of the Interior, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, C. Stephen Allred. A sixth Resource Management Plan, for BLM’s Monticello Field Office, has been approved by the Bureau of Land Management and is awaiting final review by the Department of the Interior. These new plans represent important shifts in how BLM Utah manages the public lands. They have taken an average of six years each to complete because BLM wanted to ensure that the commitments these plans represent were followed through. For instance, 2.2 million acres of lands considered to be eligible for wilderness characteristics management were thoroughly analyzed and BLM is managing 361,000 acres to preserve wilderness character on the lands in these five plans. Making these decisions meant almost starting from scratch in the Vernal and Price land use plans. Even so, BLM believes the additional time invested was worth the benefit of resolving the wilderness questions in Utah. Travel management is considered to be one of the hottest issues on public lands today, and this is particularly true for public lands in Utah. In Utah’s new plans, lands are being placed into one of three categories: open, closed or limited. Open areas are where cross-country off-highway vehicle travel is permitted. Closed areas are not available for motorized travel. Limited areas are restricted to designated routes and trails. These routes may be available at certain times, in certain areas, and/or to certain vehicular use. BLM Utah is shifting from allowing open, crosscountry travel on nearly all public lands to allowing travel only on specifically identified routes. The new travel plans close almost 1.1 million acres (13 percent) of public lands in the five plans completely to off-highway vehicle travel. The plans allow travel on specifically identified roads on 7.6 million acres (88 percent) of public lands in the five planning areas. Another way to look at this is that cross-country off-highway vehicle use is only allowed on 0.2 percent of all public lands across the five planning areas. This decision was applauded by the Utah Governor’s office and has met with overall approval from many in the public. Motorized recreation enthusiasts recognize the importance of making these decisions as crucial to overall better travel management on public lands. In addition to resolving the travel and new wilderness management issues on public lands in Utah, BLM has also tackled some of the most difficult questions facing public lands managers today: where and how energy development will take place; what lands should be set aside for conservation management; and where and how recreation will be allowed on public lands. The BLM was committed during the planning process to balance protecting environmentally sensitive areas while supporting energy resources in Utah. In the new plans, 53 percent of the acres open to oil and gas leasing are subject to stricter environmental controls, with 18 percent of the lands within the planning areas unavailable for leasing under any circumstance. In addition to strictly controlling how and where energy development will take place, BLM has committed in each of the plans to find innovative ways to minimize the footprint on public lands. This is done through best management practices, including directional drilling, well placement and sound muffling. Recreation on public lands in Utah is world renowned. To minimize conflicts between different types of recreation enthusiasts (for example back-country hikers and jeep enthusiasts), BLM had to identify where recreation opportunities exist, then prioritize where these different types of recreation should be allowed, with public land protection being the primary goal of this exercise. To achieve this delicate balance, BLM has designated 23 new special recreation management areas in addition to the seven that existed. These areas focus different types of recreation in order to limit conflicts and protect resources such as sensitive plants, spectacular views, and cultural sites. New special recreation management areas include Dolores River Canyons, Henry Mountains, Nine Mile Canyon, Fantasy Canyon and Range Creek, among others. BLM has several opportunities to protect special areas—two of these opportunities are required by specific laws. These include designating “Areas of Critical Environmental Concern” and identifying rivers and streams that should be protected as Wild and Scenic Rivers – BLM in Utah is designating 11 new ACECs including Behind the Rocks, Highway 279 Corridor, Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, and Lower Green River Corridor. Areas of Critical Environmental Concern are areas where special management attention is required to protect resources found in these areas. During the planning process, BLM concluded that 19 river segments were suitable for designation into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. These include segments of the Colorado, Green, Dolores, San Juan and Paria rivers—all of these rivers are considered so important that they draw attention worldwide. The BLM intends to work closely with the State of Utah and other federal agencies in the future to submit a statewide wild and scenic rivers package to Congress for its consideration. A third way BLM can Community rallies to support student with surgery costs Continued from Page A1. said that they sat down and talked to Lucas about the surgery, but in the end left the decision on when to have it done up to him. He agreed to the surgery but admitted with a grin that two weeks prior to the surgery he was all for postponing it until much later in his life. But he didn’t and on June 2 he went in for a surgery where two metal rods would be fastened to his spine with 29 screws to keep it from curving. It was a 12 hour surgery and in the recovery room he learned that he would have to go back into surgery the next day to replace one of the metal screws in his back. He was even less excited about the second surgery than he had been the first, but on June 3 he was again in the operating room to replace a screw that was pressing too deep. Months after his surgery, Lucas’ life has returned to relative calmness. In his senior year at Emery High, he is taking both high school and college credits and since he only needs one credit hour to complete his high school requirements, he is able to attend only a half a day of school, which is about as much as he can physically stand. With the rods in his back, he will forever have limited mobility and won’t be able to bend his back or participate in some of the sports that he used to enjoy (friendly games of golf, basketball, football), but the rods will stop the curvature of his spine. He sees brighter days ahead and is continuing with his plans to attend college to pursue studies in business administration and real estate. The half days at school are a relief from the weeks of bed rest at his home in Ferron he had to endure after the surgery, where he had to ring a bell for help with al- most everything. With an older brother and sister who no longer live at home and a younger sister, Angelina, 9, Lucas is glad to have his life returning to some degree of normalcy. His parents feel the same way, and with the surgeries behind them, they face the prospect of dealing with the medical bills that came with those surgeries. The surgeries cost $259,000 and after their insurance had paid its portion, the Giroux’ were still looking at a bill of more than $40,000. Miraculously, Gabriele explained that their bill was drastically discounted and the final bill came in at approximately $6,000, which is still insurmountable for the family. Gabriele works at the Emery County Nursing Home and George, an Army veteran, is disabled. How they were going to come up with the money to pay Lucas’ bill was a question they couldn’t answer. But the Emery County community knew how to answer the quesiton and it wasn’t long before friends of Gabriele’s from the nursing home had put together a benefit yard sale, dinner and auction in Lucas’ behalf. The benefit for Lucas will take place on Nov. 8 beginning with an indoor yard sale at 4 p.m. at the Ferron Fair Grounds. It will be followed with a chili and fry bread dinner from 5 – 7 p.m., with live music from Leather and Lace. An auction raffle will be held at 7 p.m. There is also an account set up to benefit Lucas Giroux at any Zions Bank. For the Grioux family, the support from the community has been unlike anything they have ever seen before. “We are very blessed. We would like to thank everyone for helping us and supporting us. It’s been overwhelming,” Gabriele said. Gordon’s Christy’s S alon ensations “Service With A Smile” Walk-Ins Welcome or call for an Appointment Tuesday - Friday Christy Collard Katie Brady 190 So. Main, Huntington 687-9766 Nursery & Floral Jones Authorized Dealer Home & Office Supplies Portable Music Computer Accessories Power & Batteries & Much More on all of Utah’s Proposed Plans/Final Environmental Impact Statements were reviewed by the BLM Director in Washington, D.C. over the last couple of months. After careful consideration of all points raised in these protests, the National BLM Director’s analysis shows that BLM Utah followed all laws, policies, and pertinent resource considerations in developing these plans. Minor clarifications resulting from this review are incorporated into the Approved Resource Management Plans and discussed in the Record of Decision for each plan. Finally, the State of Utah Governor’s office exercised its right to review the BLM’s land use plans and sent BLM letters concluding that the BLM plans were consistent with State or local plans. BLM is pleased with this outcome, because working with the State of Utah was of particular importance to Selma Sierra, the BLM Utah State Director. Electronic copies of the Records of Decision and Approved Resource Management Plans are available on the BLM Price Field Office web site at http://www.blm. gov/ut/st/en/fo/price/planning.html Emery County’s New Newspaper 685 South Main Street P.O. Box 487 Orangeville, UT. 84537 www.theemerycountyreview.com Phone: 435-748-2541 Fax: 435-748-2543 Established January 2, 2007 Published Every Tuesday Publisher / Editor James L. Davis jldavis@theemerycountyreview.com Co-Publisher / Office / Advertising Manager Colleen A. Davis cdavis@theemerycountyreview.com Assistant Editor Josie Luke Advertising Design / Office Lyndsay Reid Editorial Staff Kathy P. Ockey Webmaster Casey Wood Postmaster: Send change of address to The Emery County Review, 685 South Main Street, P.O. Box 487, Orangeville, UT. 84537. Publication No: (USPS 6) issued once a week at Orangeville, Utah. Standard postage paid at Orangeville, Utah. Subscription Rates 1 Year (52 Issues) In-State $23.00 1 Year (52 Issues) Out-of-State $26.00 Copyright 2008 The Emery County Review The Staff at Earl’s Furniture & Appliance would like to invite you to our Annual Customer Appreciation Party November 8, 2008 7 p.m. -10 p.m. od o f E •Prizes Galore •FrE Holiday Lots of new Christmas items! Bring a friend and join the fun! Poinsetta’s Holiday Baskets Furniture & Appliance Earl’s Center Pieces Quality for less We never stop working for you. 185 E Main Castle Dale, UT 381-2421 protect special public lands places has already been discussed. BLM can exercise its own inherent authority to protect special areas that may not necessarily qualify for protection under any of the special designation criteria mentioned above. As a result of its Utah land use planning effort, BLM will be managing 40 areas totaling 357,258 acres to protect, preserve and maintain wilderness characteristics (like solitude). Some of these areas include Fisher Towers, Grand Gulch, Dirty Devil/ French Spring and White River—all well known to photographers, hikers and mountaineering enthusiasts worldwide. BLM’s land use planning process took a long time; much longer than BLM hoped when it started many of these plans in 2001. In addition to the length of time this planning effort took, BLM did not set out to complete all six plans at the same time. The BLM is particularly pleased that despite the time it took to get these plans completed, no shortcuts were ever used. In fact, BLM’s own process allows for a discretionary review (known as protests) by an objective, higher-level official. The protest letters received 686 N 400 E Huntington 687-2264 Mon-Fri 9-6 Saturdays 10-3 390 n. Main Street Huntington 435-687-9119 |