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Show Will There Be Anything Left To Manage? . After reading last week's Garfield Gar-field County News, I just couldn't help but ask a few questions about the cattle removal from the Fifty Mile permits. 1. If it's really about drought, why does the personality and background back-ground of the permittees matter? Why is there a willingness to work with some permittees, and not all? 2. If it's really about caring for the land, why haven't erosion controls con-trols and soil stabilization methods been applied during the recent storms? Since the area is known as a "desert," wouldn't a few new catch basins for water help in the future? A few bar ditches could prevent roads from becoming impassable. 3. Where did the policy "two heartbeats at a time per trail" come from? 4. If it's really about reducing herbivores, why haven't wild horses, deer, elk, big horn sheep, birds and bears been removed? 5. If it's really about vegetation, vegeta-tion, why haven't reseeding, cultivating culti-vating and aerial fertilization taken place? 6. If it's really about dust and fragile soils, why have so many BLM horse trailers, horses and men been allowed to tromp the trails, tromp the roads and crowd the few parking spaces, not to mention helicopters which stir up things below be-low them? 7. If it's really about upholding the Proclamation, protecting heritage heri-tage and culture of the area, continuing con-tinuing traditional values, why remove re-move the local people whose lives are attached to the land? 8. Is it really good management to incur the costs of litigation, impounding im-pounding and additional labor to enforce en-force this? Ms. Cannon, after you are transferred trans-ferred from your present position, will you have friends near the Monument? Will you be able to say the land was better than you found it? Will the tax base increase or will there be . anything left to manage? ;, Marilyn Jackson . Escalante |