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Show BLM To Hold Open House In Escalante On WSA's ESCALANTE The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will host a "scoping" open house in Escalante Esca-lante on Friday, Apr. 23, to encourage encour-age public participation in the BLM's statewide planning process which will consider the establishment establish-ment of the new wilderness study areas (WSA's) on BLM lands in Utah. The meeting will be held from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at Escalante Esca-lante High School, 800 East Highway High-way 12. "The basic issue to be addressed in our statewide plan is whether or not selected inventory areas should be established as WSA's," said acting act-ing Utah BLM State Director Linda Colville. "Our comprehensive re-inventory re-inventory identified 2.6 million acres within 135 areas possessing wilderness characteristics of roadlessness, naturalness and outstanding out-standing opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation. recrea-tion. The next step is to analyze the potential impacts of a study area designation so that we can determine deter-mine which lands should be placed under interim protection until such time that they are either released from consideration or Congress acts to designate them . as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System." "While there will be several opportunities op-portunities for public involvement throughout the planning process," explained Colville, "now is the best time for the public to provide feedback feed-back issues and concerns pertinent to the plan. Comments concerning wilderness characteristics, the manageability man-ageability of potential wilderness study areas, or specific information on other resource uses within any of the 135 inventory areas that make up our planning area would be especially useful," Colville. said. To encourage public involvement, involve-ment, scoDing open houses have been scheduled in Escalante and 10 V other Utah towns between Apr. 10 and May 7. BLM personnel will be on hand at each session to explain the re-inventory procedures and findings find-ings as well as respond to questions regarding the process. Detailed files pertaining to the individual reinven-tory reinven-tory units located within the vicinity vicin-ity of the town where the meetings will be held will also be available for public inspection at the open houses. These files contain aerial photographs, topographic maps, photographs and the voluminous notes and field logs compiled by the BLM field crews that conducted the reinventory. "This is a great opportunity for the public to become more familiar with the planning areas and talk one-on-one with the Bureau planning plan-ning staff prior to submitting their written comments," said Colville. One does not have to attend an open house, however, to learn more about the planning area or to participate par-ticipate in the scoping process. The reinventory team's summary sum-mary report to the Secretary of the Interior is posted on the BLM's Internet website at www.ut.blm.govwilderness. Copies Cop-ies of the 300-page report and relevant rele-vant reinventory files are also available avail-able for public review at BLM offices of-fices and major university libraries throughout the state. To request more information or to be added to the planning project mail list contact the BLM Utah State Office, WSA Planning Project, Proj-ect, P.O. Box 45155, Salt Lake City, Utah 84145. Scoping comments should be sent to the same address or submitted submit-ted through the BLM Internet website established for the project. To be considered during the 63-day public scoping period, written comments must be received by May 19, 1999. |
