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Show BES 'tes 6hs7 par ject orriginally, proposed in Wayne County. Mr. Howard noted that BLM's wild horse manage- (Continued on Page 2) j Making more public land t available for big game man- j agement and scouting pur- ' poses was a part of the i Bureau of Land Manage ment's activities in Utah during 1977. According to Paul L. Howard, BLM Utah state director, the bureau was also involved in such programs as mineral development, graz ing, recreation, woodland ; products, and the preserva tion of environmental and cultural values of historical places. The bureau manages nearly 24 million acres in Utah on approximately 45 percent of the state's land area. Ownership of 3,206 acres J of BLM -administered land was transferred in 1977 to the Utah Division of Wildlife Wild-life Resources for big game ' management. Title on 160 j acres of public land in Iron C ounty was issued to the Boy Scouts of America. To provide better land management, the bureau 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 j county. 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 26,000 acres. Geothermal steam leasing continued with BLM issuing 3 5 noncompetitive leases on 60,708 acres and seven competitive leases on 12,788 acres with high bids totaling more than $668,000. More than 34,000 mining claims were recorded with the BLM in Utah during the year as required by the Federal Fed-eral Land Policy and Management Man-agement 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 land In the Deep Creek Mountains west of Callao from proposed mining exploration to protect the critical environmental area. Work continued on the Pariette 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 short-ages of water resulted in poor production of forage for livestock. This meant that in many areas of the state there was a reduction in grazing on public lands, which for the most part, was done voluntarily by the Ranchers. During 1977 the BLM completed two environmental environ-mental statements (ES) for projects proposed by private companies 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 process-ing plant complex in Beaver County. Also during the year BLM environmental teams had three other statements underway: the Hot Desert Grazing ES in Washington County, Allen-Warner Valley Val-ley ES in Washington and Kane Counties, and the Intermountain Power pro- HERE'S MORE ABOUT BLM ment program resulted in placing 39 Utah wild horses in "fosterhomes"duringthe year. The bureau is responsible res-ponsible for the protection and management of nearly 2,200 wild horsed and 51 wild burros in the state. During 1977, checks totaling total-ing more than $8.5 million were sent to the Utah Treas -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 devel-opment of recreation sites across the state. Work was started on the new Oasis Campgroung at the Little Sahara Recreation Area in Juab County. The campground camp-ground will have single camping units, double units, tent units, samitary dumping station, restrooms and water facilities when completed. There was also increased activity for the bureau in issuing various rights-of-way grants for roads, pipelines pipe-lines and powerlines across public lands. |