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Show Specialists to evaluate BLM grazing plans CEDAR CITY - At the request of the Utah Farm Bureau, a team of range management specialists and an economist from Utah State University will assist the state's ranchers in evaluating the impact of grazing management plans proposed by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM is preparing environmental impact statements and formulating for-mulating grazing management plans on more than 21 million acres of Utah grazing land currently managed by that agency. Utah Farm Bureau President Frank O. Nichiguchi, Garland, said his organization had requested assistance for the ranchers because "the technical expertise of USU personnel will be invaluable in finding the best solutions to the problems which surface in the BLM proposals." "Farmers and ranchers have great confidence in them," he said. "They have a practical and effective approach to management of grazing lands in Utah." According to Dr. Doyle Mtthews, USU Dean of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Ex-periment Station, the USU personnel will focus on a review of the scientific data and the economic impacts of the proposed changes in grazing. The USU team will be coordinated by Dr. Paul McCawley, extension range specialist, who will review the BLM documents and conduct tours of affected rangeland. He will be assisted by Dr. James E. Bowns, USU and Southern Utah State College range ecologist; and Dr. Bruce Godfrey, USU economics professor. Farm Bureau will sponsor meetings and range tours where livestock producers, USU scientists, Farm Bureau personnel and BLM officials of-ficials can openly discuss the management plans |