The US Bureau of Land Management did more than propose new plans on Aug. 23 for what remained of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah following US President Donald Trump’s December 2017 proclamation excluding 861,974 acres there from full national monument designation.
BLM also proposed resource management plans (RMP) for the acreage, which now is designated the Kanab-Escalante Planning Area (KEPA). It will be overseen under the US Department of the Interior agency’s broader multiple-use mandate.
Consequently, there could be different ground rules for a sizeable portion of land that previously was designated part of the new national monument that now will encompass 1.87 million acres in Utah’s Kane and Garfield counties.
“For lands in the KEPA, this planning effort is needed to identify goals, objectives, and management actions necessary to ensure that public lands and their various resource values are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people,” BLM said in its Aug. 23 Federal Register notice.
This is vintage federal land management proposal language. It leaves ample room for discussion.
On one side are groups like the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), which argued that the plan opened up hundreds of thousands of acres that originally were part of the national monument when it was designated in 1996.
“This is a plan of plunder: authorizing rampant chaining of pinyon-juniper forests, unbridled energy development, and a free-for-all of off-road vehicle abuse,” SUWA Wildlands Atty. Kya Marienfeld said.
Utah’s largely Republican congressional delegation applauded what they saw as significant efforts to recognize adjacent communities’ needs to develop a wider range of recreation and sporting activities nearby.
“Responsible economic activity and conservation have never been mutually exclusive goals. Westerners know this, Utah certainly knows this, and it is now even more clear that the BLM knows this,” said Rep. Rob Bishop, the House Natural Resources Committee’s ranking minority member.
Better new jobs
Several local leaders also have argued for years that new businesses in and around their communities should have a chance to offer year-round—instead of seasonal—full-time employment.
Newcomers are speaking up too. “In our opinion, this action is disingenuous, completed recklessly, and does not represent the true best interest of this county or the American people,” said Joe and Suzanne Catlett who operate Nemo’s Restaurant in Escalante.
Comments on both the national monument and KEPA’s proposed RMPs in Utah will be accepted until Oct. 22. Reconciling preservation of a hiking trail’s remoteness instead of authorizing its use for off-road vehicles could be an even bigger challenge now for BLM administrators overseeing the areas that have been withdrawn.