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Show " water conservancy district (headed by Garfield County Commissioner, Louise Liston) pressured BLM to agree to allow the Utah National Guard (read: free labor) to dig the 930 ft. by 130 ft. trench for the dam base. The BLM allowed one of the shortest comments periods we've heard of, giving the public only seven days to review and comment on the proposed trench digging. The BLM was again flooded by a public outcry requesting actual Editor’s Note: We've been worried about Liz, isolated as she is over there on the west side of the (rather than rubber-stamp) analysis in this end-around piecemeal approach. Once again, Beehive State. So I’ve asked her to give us an update on her post-modernist life in Cedar City. the local BLM, under pressure from BLM in Washington DC, finally agreed. The trench proposal was canned. Cedar City "living" : Unfortunately, the reservoir, dam and water diversions proposal has only suffered a At the request of the publisher of this fine publication (which, by the way, is untemporary set-back. There is no doubt that this grandiose proposal will be back. In fact, officially banned in Cedar City), I would like to regale you with tales from the BLM is currently gathering more data on which to base its conclusions regarding the wild / weird/ west side (take your pick) of Utah, lest readers get the misguided notion that environmental impacts from the proposal, data the agency should have had from the get Moab is typical of all southern Utah towns. Get real. go. This type of shoddy work is not what we had expected to come out of the BLM's After living and working in CC for one and one-half years, I have forgotten many of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument office. This raises questions regarding the my initial shocked observations and concerns and have become jaded about others. But let bias that the Monument office has towards local interests versus managing public lands for the record show that I'm still stunned that there is not a single place in CC where I can get the best interests of all of the citizens of the country. Stay tuned for the sequel to this dam a cup of real coffee and bakery goodies besides sugar donuts. Nor is there a cafe where proposal. I can sit and leisurely read a real newspaper (while drinking a real cup of coffee). Or a place to browse for non-religious books, or to have a brew pub beer. However, the bowling alley Guzzler update. is usually not crowded and it serves two different brands of bad beer. But, don't get the impression that Cedar City is a vacuum. We have both a Walmart and a Super Kmart, dozens of fast food chain restaurants (Taco Hell kicks ass), street lights bright enough to be seen from outer space, and enough unplanned housing developments to keep advocates of no-growth communities awash with examples of what-not-to-do for SUWA recently had its Request for Stay granted by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in an appeal we filed challenging the Cedar City BLM's decision allowing installation of two water developments (guzzlers) within the citizen's wilderness proposal, AND within an area the BLM recently identified as possessing wilderness characteristics. decades to come. The Stay Order means that the BLM cannot allow the installation of the water developments until IBLA issues its final decision on the merits of the appeal. Although the Stay Order is encouraging, guzzler proposals are running rampant in the largest hog farm in the world. Plus, no one wears lycra here. Thank you for letting me vent. I feel much better now. wilderness And even though Cedar Citians don't get to bask in the rich redrock colors that engulf beautiful Moab, we do get 50 mph winds that roar unchecked from Nevada for days at a time and we are lucky to be just a few short minutes' drive from the soon-to-be-completed West Desert. Fillmore BLM recently issued a decision to allow installation of six guzzlers, five of which are located within an area identified in the recent Utah Wilderness Coalition's inventory. SUWA has filed an appeal of these water developments. In addition, Fillmore BLM is taking comments on yet another proposal for 22 guzzlers in the West Desert, seven of which are located Wilderness Act, S. 861, and Cedar City BLM several of which are proposed to be located These water developments are to benefit in areas included within America's Redrock is taking comments on 32 water developments, within areas included in S.861. mainly the non-native Chukar Partridge. They alter the natural ecosystem, and their presence has been considered by BLM to impact the naturalness of an area, which could ultimately disqualify the area from wilderness designation by Congress. You can send comments to BLM requesting that these guzzlers not be allowed within areas proposed for wilderness at: BLM, Fillmore Field Office, 35 East 500 North, Fillmore, UT Cedar City, UT 84720. 84631, and Cedar City Field Office, 176 East D.L. Sargent Dr., Conoco hits dry hole. The latest exploratory well, which cost Conoco approximately $1.5 million was drilled to 10,000 feet and came up dry. The drilling operation, located approximately 13 miles north of Bullfrog within an area included in S. 861, was called off in April and the drilling ipment was moved off of the site shortly thereafter. Conoco must reclaim the site this fall, recontouring and planting native seeds. Let's hope that $1.5 million is enough lost | AiO s enou coin to make Conoco think twice before starting up exploratory operations in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where it holds numerous oil and gas leases. Wide Hollow Dam and Reservoir Proposal. , A water conservancy district's extravagant proposal to build a dam 930 ft. long and 130 ft. tall to impound a 6100 acre feet reservoir, which was to be fed by water diverted from two tributaries to the Escalante River (North and Birch Creeks) west of the town of Escalante (on public lands), has been sent back to the drawing board. This excessive water development proposal was ostensibly to allow for the continued irrigation of a mere 2400 acres of alfalfa in the desert, although the numbers included in the Environmental Assessment (EA) leads one to the conclusion that the proposed water supply capacity is for much more than 2400 acres of alfalfa. Due to the extensive public comments received by BLM, the agency finally and begrudgingly acknowledged that this dam, reservoir and diversion project was highly controversial and that the EA that BLM had prepared for the project was woefully inadequate. In particular, the EA failed to adequately address the purpose and need of the proposed project; nor did it analyze a range of reasonable alternatives (dredge existing reservoir, repair existing dam, and use existing points of diversion from Escalante River). And it failed to assess the impacts of dewatering riparian areas and the impacts to Threatened & Endangered species and their habitat (primarily Southwest Willow Flycatcher). : When it ultimately became clear to the conservancy district that BLM was not going to allow this exorbitant proposal in its grand entirety to proceed without further study, the cy | Knave of Hearts YIBAKERY 84 West 200 North “Our mission was to kill every last Grizzly bear and wolf in the state, and — we did a fine European patisserie & cafe’ featuring: Espresso, Cappuccino, Caffe Trieste coffees, Danish, Croissants Light lunch & soups, Hand-rolled bagels, French breads, Rye breads, Whole grain breads, Cheesecakes, Fruit tarts, Daquoix, Poppyseed hazelnut torte, Death by Chocolate, Chocolate & mocha genoise cakes, Wedding cakes, Birthday cakes, Muffins & Scones. | www.svn.net/camelid/knave com g 7-1-91 For almost five years, Wildlife Damage Review has studied the Animal Damage Control (ADC) program intensively. 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