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Show Mountain Trail To Be Improved In Cooperative Effort ESCALANTE Fifty-Mile Mountain will be the site of a late July cooperative volunteer effort to improve top-of-the-mountain pasture pas-ture accessible only by horseback, on foot by trail, or by helicopter. The pasture area known as the "Lake Allotment" consists of 23,441 acres and is a portion of the total Fifty-Mile Mountain Wilderness Wilder-ness Study Area located partly in Garfield County and partly in Kane County. Three Bureau of Land Management permittees currently graze some 327 head of cattle there from June 1 through Sept. 30 each year. The mountaintop has been a traditional grazing area for local cattlemen for many decades. Actually divided into three separate sepa-rate grazing areas by the BLM, the area is unfenced and cattle are free to wander throughout the large pasture, preferring the center section sec-tion for its easy accessibility to water. The section is a riparian area however, and has undergone substantial damage from overgrazing, overgraz-ing, said BLM public affairs specialist spe-cialist Ann Stanworth on Tuesday. Using volunteer help from cattlemen cat-tlemen and from representatives of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Al-liance and Utah Wilderness Society, BLM has developed a plan to upgrade up-grade and protect the area that is designed to meet the criteria of both groups. Fences will be constructed to separate the three grazing areas, making it possible periodically to close off the more delicate and overused center section to allow for its recovery and guarantee its future (See MOUNTAIN TRAILS 4A) MOUNTAIN TRAILS (vContinued From Page 1) f se as an important grazing area, aid Stanworth. I;! The fences will be constructed i ver the 3 - 4-day work period in late July and work will also be done on at least six springs in the area to upgrade them. Fences will also be constructed around the springs to protect them, Stanworth said. Any work uncompleted during the special work project will be continued by BLM personnel and the permittees themselves. Some 30 people are expected to participate in the project. Because of the remoteness of Fifty-Mile and its inaccessibility, some of the workers will travel to the moun-taintop moun-taintop worksite on foot and others by horseback. Construction materials will be. carried by helicopter in a sling and dropped close to each individual project A variety of media personnel are expected to join the volunteers on the project which BLM hopes will serve to foster positive lines of communication between those who advocate wilderness and those who oppose it, to whatever degree. The Fifty-Mile Mountaintop project will provide the opportunity for the two groups to work together in an effort that cattlemen should see as helping to maintain good grazing and preservationists should see as protecting and preserving the environment Some 82 Wilderness Study Areas Ar-eas were created in Utah. They are now awaiting the results of intense study and final recommendations before a variety of wilderness bill are introduced. Under wilderness designation, roads are prohibited but grazing of cattle is not Stanworth said the total project cost on Fifty-Mile Mountain is estimated es-timated at about $22,000, including the necessary helicopter drops at about $400 each. |