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Show BLM preparing EA for drilling in the Monument: The BLM is in the process of drafting an Environmental Assessment for Conoco's Application for Permit to Drill on its lease on Smokey Mountain, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Even though the BLM has the right to delay action on the APD, it is not inclined to delay the EA until the Monument Plan is finalized to’ see how drilling is analyzed and addressed for the Monument as a whole. That would make too much sense. Forest Service losing taxpayer money on timber project: The Dixie National Forest will lose approximately $1.75 million dollars on their proposal to cut down about 7.5 million board feet of spruce and aspen from the Dixie as part of the South Spruce Ecosystem Rehabilitation Project. According to University of Utah economist, Michael Garrity, this is a conservative estimate, and does not take into account the ecological costs borne by the forest. The loss is due in part to the low price of timber and the high costs of building new roads and upgrading existing roads to haul out the trees. Up to nine and one-half miles of new roads are planned to be built in a heretofore roadless and undeveloped area, and canoe company I.c. 55 miles of upgrading old existing roads is planned. This is not an example of jobs vs. the environment, but rather a prime example of corporate welfare vs. the environment. An alternative to logging and road building in the roadless area that could employ local residents is to obliterate and vegetate the numerous existing routes that are causing erosion, and are impacting wildlife and wildlife habitat. The forest resources would win, and the local economies would win. Novel concept. RENTALS GUIDED TRIPS SALES CANOE SCHOOL Labyrinth & Stillwater Canyons on the Green Calm & Whitewater “Daily's” on the Colorado Goosenecks of the San Juan Gateway to the Confluence on the Dolores 702 South Main Street (801) 259-7722 Advice to live by: “Get a friend at the Dixie.” This was the sage advice SUWA received when we met with Forest Chief Dombeck and two of his top assistants to discuss the plethora of logging proposals coming out of the Dixie National Forest. The Chief's highly publicized new agenda for the U.S. Forest Service that focuses on watershed health, science based road policy, and recreation is being disregarded by the Dixie as it forges ahead with plans to cut down old growth trees and build roads in roadless areas. We naively thought that the Chief and his staff should be made aware of this. LOST (800) 753-8216 DOG Baidarka, a black/tan short-hair Shepherd/Husky mix was lost on Halloween Night, 5 miles south of Moab. He was wearing a red collar but no tags. CALL HERB AT 259.5440 As the discussion with the Chief's assistants progressed (aka went nowhere), it became evident that the enlightened message the Forest Service is sending out is one thing, and that the actual day to day workings of the USFS is quite another. Case in point, we learned that Shocking cartoon reveals: SANTA GOES FOR THE SKINHEAD LOOK!!! the USFS is operating under the theory that the more money it can get from Congress to cut down more trees on our national forests (albeit at a net loss) the better off the agency will be (i.e. it can hire more “specialists”). Budget and resource voodoo. Finding a “friend” in the Dixie is not going to stop these money-losing-ecosystemobliterating actions. Further, the Chief's proposed road moratorium for roadless areas is fraught with enough loopholes to pave the Dixie. Would our national forests be better off without the USFS's brand of sustained yield/multiple use management? Guzzler Havoc: A 6,000-acre wildfire was accidentally started by a Utah Division of Wildlife Resources employee known as “Guzzler Bill,” while he was out checking a guzzler in the Beaver Dam Mountains. The fire, sparked by his vehicle's catalytic converter, burned portions of the Joshua Tree proposed wilderness, as well as part of the Beaver Dam newly inventoried wilderness. The Joshua Tree yucca dominant in this Mohave desert section of Utah are particularly vulnerable to fire and may take years to regenerate. Perhaps future Environmental Assessments should address this potential impact? fon oN Kro\ , ae | We No Mr. Starr.. You can't stand Nereee ie to Gat here, Yeesh. | look like Otto Preminger. PRINTS 121 EAST 100 SOUTH #108 MOAB, UTAH 84532 435 259-4384 800 635-5280 ‘WHAT DO WE DO? We write custom software for the big people Season's Greetings from all of us at Footprints. and the little... OK...We take that real big file cabinet full of paper and put all of it into your computer! |