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Show BLiyl lists activities in year-end roundup Making more public land available for big game man- agement and scouting purposes pur-poses was a part of the Bureau of Land Management's Manage-ment's activities in Utah during dur-ing 1977. According to Paul L. Howard, How-ard, BLM Utah state director, the bureau was also involved in such programs as mineral development, grazing, recreation, recrea-tion, woodland products, and the preservation of environmental environ-mental and cultural values of historical places. The bureau manages nearly 24 million acres in Utah or approximately approximate-ly 45 percent of the state's land area. Ownership of 3,206 acres of BLM-administered land was transferred in 1977 to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Re-sources for big game management. manage-ment. Title on 160 acres of public land in Iron County was issued to the Boy Scouts of America. To provide better land management, man-agement, the bnreau exchanged ex-changed lands in San Juan County with the state. Title to 11,423 acres on Bluff Bench was issued to the state in exchange for 14,880 acres of state-owned land in that county. coun-ty. Minerals activity during the year included issuing 1,909 noncompetitive oil and gas leases on 2,777,506 acres in Utah. Three competitive oil and gas bid openings were held by BLM during the year. High bids on these offerings totaled nearly $1.5 million on approximately approxi-mately 26,000 acres. Geothermal steam leasing continued with BLM issuing 35 noncompetitive leases on 60,708 acres and seven competitive com-petitive leases on 12,788 acres with high bids totaling more than $568,000. More than 34,000 mining claims were recorded with the BLM in Utah during the year as required by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The first emergency land withdrawal to be made by BLM under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 was initiated in Utah early in the year. The action withdrew 26,927 acres of federal fed-eral land in the Deep Creek Mountains west of Callao from proposed mining exploration ttff to protect the critical environmental environ-mental area. Work continued on the Par-iette Par-iette Wetlands project south of Myton in Uintah County. The objective of the BLM wildlife project is to increase duck and goose habitat along the Pariette Marsh with a series of dikes, canals and ditches. Ranchers and BLM worked together to take a year of drought in stride. Prolonged periods with severe shortages of water resulted in poor production of forage for livestock. live-stock. This meant that in many areas of the state there was a reduction in grazing on public kinds, which for the most part, was done voluntarily voluntar-ily by the ranchers. During 1977 the BLM completed com-pleted two environmental statements (ES) for projects proposed by private companies compan-ies involving use of public lands. These were for the Emery power plant units one and two in Emery County and for a proposed Alunite mining and processing plant complex in Beaver County. Also during the year BLM environmental teams had 3 other statements underway: the Hot Desert Grazing ES in Washington County, Allen-Warner Allen-Warner Valley ES in Wash- ington and Kane Counties, and the Intermountain Power 5 Project originally proposed in Wayne County. Mr. Howard noted that J BLM's wild horse manage-J manage-J ment program resulted in I placing 39 Utah wild horses in i "foster homes" during the year. The bureau is responsi-4 responsi-4 ble for the protection and i management of nearly 2,200 ? wild horses and 51 wild burros z in the state- ( During 1977, checks total-t total-t ing more than $8.5 million were sent to the Utah Treas-t Treas-t urer as the state's share of funds received from public lands managed by BLM. There were 256 fires on BLM managed lands in the state that burned 2,125 acres. This was an increase from the 208 fires in 1976, but a decrease of about 12,000 acres burned. , The bureau was active in the management and development develop-ment of recreation sites a-cross a-cross the state. Work was started on the new Oasis Campground at the Little Sahara Recreation Area in Juab County. The campground camp-ground will have single camping camp-ing units, double units, tent units, sanitary dumping station, sta-tion, restrooms and water facilities when completed. There was also increased activity for the bureau in issuing various rights-of-way grants for roads, pipelines and powerlines across public lands. |