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Show The Book Cliffs onservations De velopment? By Maureen Zent magine a world in which environmentalists and oil company reps sit across a table, discussing public land use in civil tones. Imagine sportsmen and ranchers calmly The conservation initiative worked exchanging views about a balance of wildlife , through the market system buying property. The group labored to cooperate with local and cattle. Imagine state and federal employees working hand-in-hand. No, this is not a prophetic dream nor a utopian fantasy, This vision of cooperation is a real-life planning process for the future management of the remote Book Cliffs area in eastern Utah. Hard to believe in a year that has seen environmentalists battling mineral exploration in the Kaiparowits Plateau, the governor vowing to foil Goshute Indian plans to receive nuclear waste on their reservation, and county officials defying the feds over road building. But since January individuals representing disparate interests have met monthly to develop a blueprint for multiple use of vast, virtually unpopulated areas comprising mostly federal and state lands. These meetings are the next stage in a program that began in the late 80s, called the Book Cliffs Conservation Initiative. It started as a cooperative venture involving the Bureau of Land Management, the Utah Division of Wildlife The Rocky Mountain Elk Resources, Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy. operations, but found that ranchers jealously guard their right to hold grazing permits. It pbotos by Harold E. Malde was only a matter of time before someone, eyeing those precious federal lands, moved to challenge conservation as an aim on a par The Book cliffs region stretches from Vernal to Grand County near Moab and contains some of Utah’s wildest land. with running cattle. Now a blistering federal century Cliffs are "We're trying to influence that situation for lawsuit could stand in the way of restoring the Book Cliffs. But at first, the conservation initiative progressed according to plan. "The Book Cliffs is a unique eco-system," says Bill Christensen, Utah Field Director for the Elk Foundation. "With a lot of animals that migrate like deer and elk, usually winter range is the limiting factor. In the Book Cliffs summer range is the limiting factor. So it’s different from most places in Utah." The region stretches east from the Colorado border to the Ute Indian land and south from below Vernal to northern Grand home to diverse animal species including elk, the better and work with the most progressive ranchers we can find to manage for ranching County. The land varies greatly beginning in the north at 5,500 feet in desert shrub land, then rising through pinyon, juniper, and aspens to 8,500 feet. Indian pictographs decorate red rock country and there are intact, abandoned 19th homesteads. The Book deer, mountain lion, black bear, waterfowl, hawks, and golden eagles. There may also be potential for reintroducing other native species such as moose and bighorn sheep. Through the initiative, the conservation groups bought ranches in the Book Cliffs area and transferred grazing permits to nonuse and conservation status. The coalition began on-going efforts to rehabilitate the land after years of over-grazing. The Nature Conservancy had bought other ranches in the past. "The way we look at it is that the west is managed by ranchers now. These ranches are often very large with unfragmented ownership. They are the main stewards on huge areas of public land and you can’t ignore that," says Chris Montague, Utah Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy. as well as the natural values that are there." The goals of the initiative included increasing the numbers and diversity of wildlife and opening access for recreation. At the same time, coalition members expected grazing and mineral exploration to continue. But not everybody is pleased with this cooperative project. Texas oil billionaire Oscar Wyatt, owner of the Sweetwater Ranch in the Book Cliffs, is suing coalition members over what he alleges is a violation of the federal Taylor Grazing Act. Wyatt's lawyers have argued in federal court that the conservation initiative was a conspiracy to turn the region into a wildlife preserve and that the growing herd of elk are eating the Sweetwater Ranch’s forage, hurting Wyatt's cattle. All You Can Eat Sushi Monday & Tuesday $25 Wednesday 2 for 1 Dinner Entrees PAGE 8 ¢ JUNE 1997 zZuke GIVE YOUR J. AW! , 5 fs AND SIP A SMOOTHIE you Park City F a De |