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Show f . , . ' I . i ' ' : N . . ; . ' ., t- J t I . 4 ' . . , ! ! ; '. . A Academic All-State status was achieved by Patrice Feb. 22. Troy Josie with a CPA of 3.7 and Carsen Mar-Proctor Mar-Proctor with a grade score average of 3.98 and chosen shall with a GPA of 3.98 were chosen All-State Wrestl-All-State Volleyball on Nov. 2. Misty Miller with a GPA ing Team, of 3.7 was chosen on the All-State Basketball team on s1 Three-Million Acres Could be Involved Tine ' In Forest Service-BLM Land Exchange 'TV A proposed interchange of lands between the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management submitted to Congress Wednesday could involve some three million t and acres in Utah. In addition, the Willi Forest Service would be given de ij minerals responsibilities on about " 8.5 million acres in the state, i sue Nationally, about 24.2 million leldj acres would be involved, plus about "wai 204 million acres of subsurface Taut mineral estate administered by the sajg FS for which the agency would be , given minerals management gra4 responsibilities presently done by BLM. theu The U.S. Departments of ntan Agriculture (parent agency of the FS) and Interior (parent agency of yoj BLM) Wednesday transmitted the interchange proposal to Congress, jrtg Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel r and Acting Secretary of Agriculture John R. Norton said the proposed Te(1 "Federal Lands Administration Act of 1986," when implemented, will IID( enhance service to the. public,, provide more efficient ad-. ad-. k ministration of the natural j resources, and save money for the Bnis Svernment- These benefits can be achieved, they said, by consolidation of offices i(. in 35 towns and eventual reduction of ute Kover Personnel positions which, yilong with other efficiencies, will produce annual savigns of $13-$15 million. Personnel reductions will be achieved through normal attrition, and layoffs are not anticipated. Public service will also be improved, im-proved, they said, because users of these lands who currently need to obtain grazing, right-of-way, and recreation permits or mineral authorizations from two agencies will have to deal with only one federal office. Currently, 10 Utah communities maintain both BLM and FS offices. After the interchange, only six Utah communities would have offices of both agencies because of office mergers in Richfield, Moab, Monticello and St. George. The proposal would result in a net personnel savings of 47 positions in Utah. The interchange concept has been studied since 1980 and was announced an-nounced as proposal by the two agencies on January 30, 1985. The proposal called for consolidating in one agency management for blocks of interspersed land now administered ad-ministered by the two organizations. An intensive public participation effort was conducted, with more than 600 briefings and consulations with Governors, key public groups and Congressional delegations, along with 85 public meetings during the intital stage of concept development. The proposal was further refined and released for formal public comment on June 7, 1985. This revised proposal called for an interchange of about 35 million acres of land between the two agencies and transfer of some minerals management responsibilities respon-sibilities to the Forest Service. Thirty formal public hearings were scheduled throughout the nation to allow the public to testify on the proposal. About 2,350 comments com-ments were received, including comments from more than 500 persons who testified at the formal hearings. Forest Service Chief R. Max Peterson said the proposal transmitted tran-smitted today is responsive to that public comment. "We have worked very hard over the past several months to respond to public concerns," con-cerns," he said. "As a result, we believe we have a sound proposal which reflects those concerns while still meeting the objective of increased in-creased efficiency and cost savings." Changes were made in the proposal as a result of public comment, and a decision was made C to prepare a Legislative Environmental En-vironmental Impact Statement (LEIS). This document is prepared as an advisory to Congress regarding regar-ding the impact and ramifications of the proposal. The LEIS will be transmitted to Congress within 30 days. BLM Director Robert F. Burford said there has been excellent cooperation between the BLM and FS in developing the interchange proposal. "The great effort made by employees in both agencies has resulted in a proposal which, if implemented, will benefit the American public by substantially improving management and administration ad-ministration of both national forest and BLM lands," he said. |