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Show PAGE 22 THE ZEPHYR AUGUST 1994 The Canyon Country WATCHDOG By Scott Groene Blanding Parade A US Forest Service employee was hung in effigy at the Blanding Fourth of July parade. Blanding resident Jerry Holliday took credit for the hanging which he said was in response to the Forest Service demolishing his personal home which was built on Manti-LaSNational Forest property on Elk Ridge. The Forest Service attempted for some time to get Holliday to either justify his use of Forest land, or tear down the cinder block cabin. When Holliday repeatedly refused to respond, the Forest Service finally took corrective action. Also in the parade was a float with a depiction of rubble from the home, along with a sign declaring "This is Our Country." This same slogan was displayed on the Blanding public calendar of events last time I passed through town. Thanks to the Forest Service for sticking up for the public interest. The incident demonstrates why we need strong federal land managers in southern Utah to protect public lands that belong to all of us. pending before Congress. of potential Earlier this year the Utah BLM budgeted money for a state wide on that hold a has put wilderness areas in order to correct past mistakes. Since then the agency expenditure. The BLM is conducting new wilderness inventories in other western states. The Oregon and included in citizen's wilderness proposals, Washington BLM's have started to inventory lands into introduced congress far these lands. In Utah we have the although there is no bill has been wilderness, we have the citizen's wilderness proposal, and we have a bill for that proposal in those lands. Yet congress. What we don't have is BLM inventorying Listen Up Moab District BLM has argued in the past that it could make decisions affecting wilderness SUWA tried to convince the agency study arms without providing a public comment period. with letters and appeals that it was required to provide a 30 day comment period. The Washington D.C BLM office issued an instruction memorandum dated July 19, 1994, which states there must be a minimum of a thirty day comment period before any WSA decision is made. al Riverside Mess. Concern over protecting the scenic Colorado River corridor along Highway 128 has focused on protecting private lands, such as with the Grand County and the Nature Conservancy's effort to protect the orchards. As the value of the corridor becomes appreciated, it should be noted that two of the biggest material site pviwHng eyesores on this stretch are on BLM land. First, file BLM granted a 30 year the turn near located the for of to the Utah Department gravel pit Transportation off to Castle Valley. Grazing Reform 94: Clinton Administration Sells West Down Toilet Senator Bob Bennett held a Senate Energy Committee hearing during July in Richfield, Utah on the Clinton Administration's grazing "reform" package. The package has been gutted to the extent it will now have little impact: file EIS which accompanies the plan projects only a 3 change over the next 20 years if the plan is implemented. The administration estimates there will be 10,698,035 AUMs (the unit of forage a cow eats in a month) in 20 years without the "reform" package. With "reform" that number would be 10,463,106. Still, Secretary Babbitt was at the hearing to reassure the ranchers that the Clinton administration was willing to retreat even further if necessary to appease the livestock industry. Senator Bennett responded that "This is as far as I've ever heard you go. right-of-w- Hollywood: Gone, but Not Forgotten In Southern Utah. The damage done to southern Utah by the filming of City Slickers II is beginning to come to light First, according to the Deseret News, a crew for City Slickers illegally bulldozed a 20 foot wide road about half the length of a football field near Indian Creek. BLM rangers in the San Juan Resource Area ticketed the movie makers for that action. According to BLM report of the incident acquired under the Freedom of Information Act, when a BLM Ranger investigated the filming he found that there had been "extensive off road travel," that there was not enough dust control, and that Rick Dalago, location manager for Castle Rock Films, "was mostly indifferent to BLM guidelines and concerns." The BLM ranger's report concludes that the agency should deny future permits requested by Castle Rock Films. Here in the Grand Resource Area, City Slickers also bladed an unauthorized strip about forty feet wide and a quarter mile long, this time in a proposed wilderness area near Pyramid Butte. However, there was quite a contrast between how the Grand Resource Area BLM staff responded to City Slickers, foam that of the SJRA BLM. Rather than issuing a ticket or recommended a blacklisting, the GRA staff at the site allowed blading to take place even though the work was not authorized in the film makers permit City Sicken was supposed to reclaim the Pyramid Butte mess last fall, but failed to do so. The BLM pressed the film company to finally begin reclamation of the bladed area in file middle of this past July, coincidentally one week after a news story about the damage ran in the Deseret News. Grazing Reform 94: Weird Claims by Hatch. Senator Hatch introduced a written statement at the Richfield grazing hearing which declared that if current grazing fees (now $1.92 per month per cow on public land) were raised to more than $230 that one third of Utah's public land ranchers could go broke immediately, and another third within five years. The senator's projections are surprising given that in 1979 the grazing fee was $2.77. ay We featured cattle in Groene's column this month because: A) It reminds Scott of his commitment to prevent the abuse of public lands grazing in the West by the subsidized cattle industry. B) Deep down, Scott really LIKES cattle, especially that cute little white face in the middle. are BIKERS! C) Those aren't cattle-Tho- se D) All of the above. The second scar is a gold mining daim located on public land above New Rapid on river left As this is written, the BLM says it intends to convince daim holders to dean up some of the mess. The BLM could takes steps to prated the scenic river corridor. In the first instance, the 30 year agreement for the gravel pit can be terminated if both the BLM and State agree. In the second case file BLM's hands are tied somewhat by the antiquated Mining Law of 1872. Still, the agency could withdraw the river corridor from future entry by hard rock mining claims. Nutters Hole Gas Wells. The BLM has yet to release a decision on a proposal to drill 53 natural gas wells on either side of the Green River just north of the head of Desolation Canyon, including within a proposed wilderness area. Copies of the proposal can be requested from Dave Little, Vernal District BLM, 170 South 500 East, Vernal, Utah 84078 (7891362). Just around file Comer In the mid 70s, Congress ordered BLM to inventory its lands for potential wilderness and to protect these areas as Wilderness Study Areas until Congress passed a Utah BLM wilderness bilL Instead, after an inventory that has been heavily criticized by environmentalists, a federal administrative court and a congressional oversight committee, the BLM gave WSA protection to just 32 million of the 5.7 million acres that qualify as wilderness. In response, Utah wilderness advocates conducted their own inventory and a bill to protect the full 5.7 million acres is now Grazing Reform 94: The Utah Cattlemen's Association Spin. The Utah Cattlemen's Association has been trying to scare their members with misleading information about the Clinton administration's grazing proposal The Cattlemen's July 1994 newsletter ran an article headed US Department erf Agriculture Predicts Widespread Ranch Bankruptcy after Grazing Fee Hike which stated that "50.4 of the ranchers who have Farmer Home Administration Loans will face default once fees are hiked." The Utah Cattleman goes on FOR ALL YOUR SOLAR NEEDS CALL: smr ROBERT SOLDAT CVSR 2510 801-259-76- Vi?. 38 MOAB, UT 84532 |