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Show DOI Secretary Bruce Babbitt Hears Southern Utah Ranchers, Leaders And Environmentalists Calling Monday's field hearing in Richfield "exceptionally productive, produc-tive, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt heard from a mix of approximately 75 ranchers, government govern-ment leaders and environmentalists who were on hand to express their opinions about Babbitt's Rangcland Refrom '94 which many local ranchers fear will drive them out of business. Ranchers concerns centered on increased grazing fees, the makeup of their advisory councils and state control of water rights. Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, arranged for the hearing. Rangeland Reform '94 has undergone un-dergone some significant changes since last year when Western senators sena-tors filibustered its original form, and while most Southern Utah ranchers agree that some progress has been made, most still feel that significantly more change is needed before it no longer threatens to destroy de-stroy their way of life. On hand briefly at the Richfield High School meeting was Governor Mike Leavitt who asked Babbitt to give governors control over selection selec-tion of advisory committee members mem-bers to guarantee fair representation of all interested parties. Babbitt said he will consider Governor Lea vi it's Leavitt also expressed serious concerns to Babbitt that the state maintain its present role in water rights issues and that grazing fees be based upon the quality of the land in use. The philosophy of Babbitt's Rangeland Reform '94 proposal, federal planners say, is an eco-sys-tcm-bascd program designed to more quickly improve and restore rangelands and bring grazing fees for federal lands more into line with those charged on private lands. Garfield County commissioners Shcrrcll Ott and Louise Liston were also on hand for the hearing, with Liston scheduled to participate as a member of a county commissioners panel. Because of misinformation, she was late for the panel and was asked to present her views independently indepen-dently of the panel. Liston, whose husband Robert is a fourth-generation cattle rancher, also serves as chair of the national Association of Counties Public Lands Steering Committee. Liston specifically objected to the proposal's conflict of interest ruling that would prevent, ranchers from silting on advisory councils. She pointed out that such a ruling, if it should stand, should also apply to environmentalists who tradition-. ally have raised money to promote real or apparent threats to public lands and have frequently sued federal fed-eral agencies and appealed federal public lands decisions. She objected to Rangeland Reform Re-form '94's proposal to cancel or suspend permits for violation of laws with no direct connection to the permit and other language in the proposal that she said will have the effect of depriving permittees of due process rights. She said that the proposal provides pro-vides no protection gainst the federal fed-eral government taking over water rights of states and that the proposed pro-posed increase in grazing fees "is completely unreasonable and unjustifiable." unjus-tifiable." Claiming that records clearly demonstrate that rangeland quality has consistently improved since the early 19007, Liston said that Rangcland Reform '94 is "attempting "attempt-ing to fix something that is not broken." bro-ken." She said that "proposed changes of such magnitude ought to come through Congressional legislation, legis-lation, not administrative regulations. She pointed out Garfield County's Coun-ty's more than 5,000 square miles, with less than two percent private ownership of lands, saying, "There are three national parks, three state parks, a national recreation area, and all or portions of 18 wilderness study areas within its boundaries. With a population of fewer than 4,000, we are expected to take care of well over two million visitors who choose to recreate on those lands. We handle their waste, provide pro-vide law enforcement services, emergency services, search and rescue, res-cue, we try their cases in our courts, maintain safe roads for them to travel on, all on a very limited budget bud-get that is being further eroded by loss of taxes due to sawmill closures clo-sures and increased regulations and appeals which discourage any resource-based industry from even considering development in our area. The only major industries left in our county other than ranching ... is the presence of federal agencies and tourism, both requiring and more often demanding, services that counties are expected to provide. pro-vide. ... Congress can approve millions mil-lions of dollars to buy up more private pri-vate property for parks and other purposes, but counties impacted by federal lands in their borders continue con-tinue to be ignored." Liston included with her statement state-ment for the record a resolution concerning local government in the design of a new policy for federal lands under the jurisdiction of the BLM. The resolution was officially adopted as a position of the National Na-tional Association of Counties through its Western Interstate Region. |