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Show An Open Letter To Sally Wisely An open letter to Sally Wisely, Director, Utah State Bureau of Land Management: We understand that BLM is negotiating with Mary Bulloch regarding the Rock CreekMudholes Allotment on Fifty Mile Mountain. We visited visit-ed both the Rock Creek and the Mudholes pastures of the allotment allot-ment this summer and are extremely concerned about . severe degradation of the ! resource on them. We found ; horses belonging to Mary on ' both pastures, despite the fact that BLM closed the entire allotment allot-ment to grazing in Fall 2000. We found fresh cattle tracks and manure on the Mudholes pas- ture. We visited the Rock Creek ' pasture on June 7-8, 2002. We ; camped near Mary's line cabin ; in Little Valley. The area is littered lit-tered with several decrepit trail-; trail-; ers, shade structures, and other ; trash. The road has been turned - into a corral, which as members of the public we did not appreci- ate. Five of Mary's horses had found a way out of the rock cor- ' ral into the Last Chance : Allotment. They grazed right ; outside our tent and our guests, r van at 4 in the morning. They followed me for miles when I went for a walk. We chose to take our guests on the Croton Road and the Little Valley Road in order to visit very remote areas of the '. Monument. We hoped to enjoy "" unsurpassed solitude and natural ! beauty. We and our guests were ', shocked to find the unsightly line camp and unhappy to have our quiet night spoiled by the trespass horses. We visited the Mudholes pasture pas-ture on August 10, 2002. The meadow at the head of Llewellyn Canyon was in worse shape than when we visited it in June 2001 with a BLM team. As you can see from the enclosed picture 1, it is mowed to the ground, dried up, and covered with feces and bones. Both springs at the head of Llewellyn Canyon were dry. Cattle and horses had beaten up the banks, as documented in the enclosed picture 2. Whereas in 2001, there was cheat grass between the sage bushes in the couple of miles between Llewellyn Canyon and Mudholes Spring, this year there was only dry dust, churned by hungry cows and horses looking for anything to eat. . Our hearts sank lower and lower as we approached Mudholes Spring, for there were strong cow trails leading to it. We feared that the oasis we had seen in 2001, with waist-high grass under glimmering aspen trees, had been ruined. Indeed, we found tracks and manure all over the inside of the exclosure around Mudholes Spring and Mary.s line cabin. The grass is gone under the aspen near the cabin. The spring was still running, run-ning, so there was grass in the little meadow. However, we found three of Mary's horses chomping down on it. Gregg Christensen later told us that she left those horses on the allotment in Spring 2002. We walked the entire circumference circum-ference of the Mudholes Spring exclosure. We found three holes in the fence and one gate that (See LETTERS on page 4A) Letters To The Editor From Page 2A i had been purposely left wide open by a human. We ran the trespass horses out of the exclo-sure, exclo-sure, fixed the holes, and closed all the gates. BLM was absolutely right to close this allotment to livestock grazing in 2002. Conditions on the allotment were deplorable then and are even worse in the current drought. BLM was absolutely right to remove Mary's cattle in Fall 2000 and Winter 2001. BLM should make every effort to remove the rest of her cattle and her horses before winter sets in this year and the poor animals die of thirst, starvation and exposure. The current negotiations with Ms. Bulloch must result in all the livestock being removed from Fifty Mile Mountain so the resource can recover. BLM must not waiver on that issue. Second in importance is permanently per-manently closing the Rock CreekMudholes Allotment. BLM has the authority to do this and should do it, for two reasons. rea-sons. 1) The allotment is clearly clear-ly unmanageable. It is cut with many deep ravines and full of pinyon and juniper trees where livestock hide, making it virtually virtual-ly impossible to find them. It would be very difficult for any permittee to move all the livestock live-stock from the Mudholes pasture pas-ture in summer to the Rock Creek pasture in the winter, as required by the permit. 2) The allotment is marginal in terms of forage production. After the abuse it has endured during the droughts of 2000 and 2002, it will take years to recover if ever does. Third in importance is canceling can-celing Ms. Bulloch's grazing permit. Mary has flagrantly and repeatedly thumbed her nose at the BLM throughout this whole episode. She refused to remove her livestock by the September 1, 2000, deadline in the impound notice, and she still has not removed them. She stole not only her cattle, but cattle belonging to other permittees, from the auction yard in November 2000, and transported transport-ed them across state lines. Then in Spring 2002 she purposely left three horses orr the Mudholes pasture. One can only presume that she purposely left the five horses that we saw on the Rock Creek pasture as well. Ms. Bulloch does not have the credentials to be a responsible permittee. On the contrary, she is one of the worst examples of an irresponsible permittee that we have ever encountered. In addition to her exploits as described above, in Fall 2000 she told the press that she is proud to have descended from Scottish cattle rustlers. In December 2000 she pleaded guilty to a shoplifting charge. Frankly, BLM should not stoop to negotiate with this petty crim inal. Fourth in importance is collecting col-lecting the trespass fees and impoundment expenses that Ms. Bulloch owes the American people. These fees and expenses expens-es amounted to $65,000 in April 2001. At the willful trespass rate of $20AUM, she owes at least an additional $11,000 for the period May 2001 to the present. pres-ent. (On June 21, 2001, BLM observed 36 cattle on the Mudholes Allotment and three mules and one horse belonging to Mary on the Lake Allotment for which Mary has no permit whatsoever. Mary removed nine cattle in November 2001. In February 2002 BLM flew over the Mudholes Allotment and counted 33 cattle. Mary removed 11 cattle in April 11. Therefore, there are still at least 22 cattle on the allotment, plus the eight horses that we saw.) We look forward to hearing that the settlement includes removal of all livestock from drought-stricken Fifty-Mile Mountain and the permanent closure of Reck CreekMudholes Allotment. The public will be extremely disappointed with anything less. Victoria Woodard Board Member Escalante Wilderness Project Cc: Brent Israelsen, Salt Lake Tribune; Judy Fahys, Salt Lake Tribune; and Donna Kemp Spangler, Deseret News We Must Preserve Our Road Rights The Grand Staircase-Monument Staircase-Monument Plan describes it own road system within the monument boundaries complete with roads to be closed and left open, road restrictions (includ- ing no ATV travel on many roads) and administration roads open only to monument personnel person-nel and those they "allow" access to. The monument plan describes the destruction of the existing county roads and is in stark contrast to the county road system and county policy in use today. All one need do is read a few pages of the "plan" and it become obvious that the federal government wants control over our county roads within the monument. It wants control of all existing rights within the monument including water rights and state rights to manage wildlife and will eventually challenge private property rights within the monument. The acceptance of a Title 5 permit on the Hole-in-the-Rock Road by Kane County begins the takeover of our county by the federal government and sets a dangerous precedent. The federal fed-eral government cannot take our road rights, but we can give them away. The acceptance of this and other Title 5 permits is not in the best interest of Kane County. Official acceptance of our valid existing rights by the federal government is in the best interest inter-est of Kane County residents. Monument Acting Director David Hunsaker was quoted in the Southern Utah News as advising those in attendance at a recent public meeting regarding Hole-in-the-Rock, "The BLM was prepared to offer language in a Title 5 right-of-way permit that would not affect the county's coun-ty's position regarding RS2477 assertions." The Canyon Country Rural Alliance (CCRA) has long contended con-tended that the acceptance of a FLPMA Title 5 permit over a valid existing right-of-way under Revised Statute 2477 transfers the control and authority author-ity of our county roads from the county to the federal government govern-ment and constructively abandons aban-dons our valid existing rights. District 'Court Judge" David''' Mower agreed with the CCRA in two court hearings regarding this issue. What Mr. Hunsaker is actually actual-ly saying in the above quotation is that the federal government refuses to fulfill its legal obligation obliga-tion to recognize our valid existing exist-ing rights but that it will accept control and authority of our road while Kane County accepts responsibility for maintenance of the road, and that if the county coun-ty decides to sue the federal government as a later date resulting in a court-ordered (See LETTERS on page 7A) Letters From Page 5A recognition of our valid existing right, only then would the federal feder-al government recognize our right. However, the courts have held that our rights exist without the recognition of the BLM so above BLM wording does nothing noth-ing to protect our rights. A question asked at the Hole-in-the-Rock public meeting illustrates the actual transfer of control of our roads to the BLM with the acceptance of a Title 5 permit. The questions asked was whether the county or the BLM would control the use of the road regarding activities such as ATV, horse or bicycle travel. Mr. Hunsaker answered that question by saying, "The agency that has the right-of-way does what it needs to do according accord-ing to the rules and regulations of that right-of-way." Under the current county-controlled RS2477 right-of-way, ATV travel trav-el is allowed on Hole-in-the-Rock Road. The rules and regulations regu-lations in the monument plan do not allow ATV travel on the road. With the transfer of control con-trol and authority to the BLM with a Title 5 permit, residents' rights granted under RS2477 would disappear. CCRA encourages residents to study the plan and advise both the BLM and county officials ef your interests in preserving our road rights. Earl Robinson, Kanab President, Canyon Country Rural AlliancSe i |
