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Show Alumifo, goofhormal, oilgas in County highlight DLfJ year Managing nearly 25 million mil-lion acres in Utah involved the Department of the Interior's In-terior's Bureau of Land Management in a wide variety va-riety of activities during 1976. BLM manages over 50 percent of Beaver County, with nearly 80 percent under un-der federal control. J According to Paul L. How ard, BLM Utah state director, direc-tor, the Bureau was involved in such programs as mineral min-eral development, grazing, recreation, woodland products, prod-ucts, and the preservation of environmental and cultural values of historical places. The bureau administers approximately ap-proximately 47 percent of the state's land area. Late in February, the BLM State Office moved from the Federal Building to the University Uni-versity Club Building at 136 East South Temple in Salt Lake City. The move was made to centralize the staff and provide for better service ser-vice to the public. Minerals activity during the year included issuing 2,341 noncompetitive oil and gas leases on 3,460,397 acres and 19 competitive oil and gas leases on 4,886 acres. High bids for the competitive leases totaled $148,946. Geo-thermal Geo-thermal steam leasing continued con-tinued with BLM issuing 87 noncompetitive leases on 154,000 acres and 13 competitive com-petitive leases on 26, 968 acres ac-res with high bids totaling $96,688. Oil and gas leasingactivi-ty leasingactivi-ty on BLM -administered land in western and southern south-ern Utah increased greatly with the bureau receiving 130 lease applications for that area during the last 60 days of the year. Much of this leasing activity was in Western West-ern Beaver and Millard Counties. Public hearings on the draft environmental statement state-ment (ES) for the proposed Emery power plant near Castle Dale were held in September. Bureau personnel person-nel are also involved in statement state-ment or pre -statement work on two other proposed coal-fired coal-fired generating plants in Utah: Warner Valley, near St. George; and Intermoun-tain Intermoun-tain Power Project, 10 miles north of Caineville, Wayne County. A draft ES was completed and public hearings held concerning con-cerning a proposed alunite processing plant in Beaver County. Alunite ore would be mined and processed at the project site in the south end of Wah Wah Valley, which is approximately 30 miles southwest of Milford. Alumina, Alu-mina, the primary raw material ma-terial for aluminum, would be the major product. As a result of the public hearings hear-ings and comments, the bureau bur-eau will issue a final ES, preparatory to a decision as to whether the project should be allowed. BLM' people are working on Utah's first draft ES concerning con-cerning livestock grazing. The pilot effort has been titled the Hot Desert ES and includes most of the national nation-al resource lands in Washington Wash-ington County. The bureau will prepare 20 grazing statements in Utah over the next 12 years because of a suit against the BLM by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Mr. Howard noted that BLM's wild horse management manage-ment program resulted in placing 29 Utah wild horses Division of Wildlife Resoukc-es Resoukc-es under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act. Title to 4,607 acres in Castle Valley, Val-ley, Grand County was also transferred from the federal government to the State of Utah. The Bureau was also active ac-tive in issuing various rights-of-way grants for roads, pipelines and power lines. There were 208 fires on national resource lands that burned 14,251 acres. This was an increase from the 127 fires in 1975. An increase in public response re-sponse to the Bureau's annual an-nual offering of firewood and Christmas trees was also noted. in "foster homes" during the year. The Bureau is responsible re-sponsible for the protection and management of nearly 1,900 wild horses and 70 wild burros in the state. The Bureau was active in the management and development devel-opment of recreation sites across the state. In April, a ceremony to dedicate the 60,000 -acre Little Sahara Area southwest of Jericho, Juab County, was conducted at a newly completed picnic site in the recreation complex. com-plex. Eight wildlife habitat im -proveroent projects in seven counties were completed by BLM during the year In cooperation with the Utah Division of Wildlife Re sources. Basic stablization of three historic sites in Utah was completed under supervision of BLM: FortPearce, southeast south-east of St. George in Washington Wash-ington County; Starr Ranch, south of Hanks ville in Garfield Gar-field County; and Swasey's Cabin, west of Green River in Emery County. During 1976, checks totaling total-ing more than seven and one -half million dollars were sent to the Utah Treasurer as the state's share of funds received from federal lands administered by BLM, Mr. Howard noted. Ownership of 600 acres of BLM -administered land in Sanpete and Juab counties was transferred to the Utah |
