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- Juab County commissioners send letter to BLM director opposing the creation of additional wilderness areas within the county
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By Myrna Trauntviein
Times-News Correspondent
"Juab County is opposed to the creation of any additional wilderness area within our county," stated commissioners in a letter sent to Juan Palma, Utah State BLM director.
The letter was in response to one sent by Palma to commissioners on July 19 asking the commission to recommend lands that the U.S. Congress should designate as wilderness.
"We are responding to a letter sent to us," said Chad Winn, commissioner. "Palma was responding to a letter he received from Salazar."
The letter from commissioners was dated and signed by all three as part of commission meeting on Monday.
"At this time Juab County is opposed to the creation of any additional wilderness areas within our county boundaries," stated the commission letter. "This opposition is consistent with the sentiment of the vast majority of our residents."
"As commissioners, we request that you respect the wishes of the majority, as we, their elected leaders, request that you convey to Secretary Salazar that there is no significant public support in Juab County for additional wilderness here."
In December 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a major shift in wilderness policy for the Bureau of Land Management.
The policy change requires the BLM to "designate appropriate areas with wilderness characteristics under its jurisdiction as 'Wild Lands' and to manage them to protect their wilderness values," according to a Secretarial Order.
The Obama administration abandoned the "No More Wilderness" agreement of 2003 as part of an out-of-court settlement between then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton and former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt.
With the December announcement, the secretary said that his order was an effort to rectify a gap in the BLM's handbook created by the Norton-Leavitt Wilderness Agreement. That agreement established that no new Utah lands would be defined as wilderness without the consent of Congress.
Then at the end of May, Salazar said he would reverse his controversial policy, issued in December, that allowed the Bureau of Land Management to inventory and set aside swaths of federal acres that have wilderness characteristics.
Instead, Salazar said he would focus on locally supported plans and look to Congress for its input in making decisions to protect areas, a move Republicans claimed as a victory.
"I'm gratified that they finally appear to understand that Washington arbitrarily restricting the use of our public lands is the wrong thing to do," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) Utah, said, "especially during tough economic times and without any input from Congress or local officials."
Congress had already barred any funds from being used to enforce the wild lands policy, and Utah, the Utah Association of Counties and Uintah County sued the Interior Department to block it. Those lawsuits are pending.
Salazar's change came six months after he announced a new path forward, bypassing a Bush-era directive known as "no more wilderness."
The secretary said he would now turn his attention to gathering input from members of Congress, local officials and other interested parties in finding and staking out new wilderness areas.
His memorandum did not withdraw the wild lands executive order but instead said the BLM would refrain from designating wild lands in compliance with a congressional rider that defunded the effort for this fiscal year.
Utah has 3 million acres of wilderness study areas.
The letter, sent by Juab County Commissioners to Palma, was signed by all three commissioners.
"In case you happen to receive any recommendations from any citizen, organization or entity, in regards to designating additional lands inside our county as wilderness, we request that you provide us copies of all such recommendations and related documents for our review and comment," reads the letter.
As a body, commissioners wanted to make it painstakingly clear that Palma and Salazar not act on any such wilderness recommendations from any citizen, organization or entity within or without Juab County, unless and until sufficient time to review and comment on any such recommendation has been given commissioners.
"We want to be the ones who make decisions on the creation of any additional wilderness in our county," said Val Jones, commission Chairman.
As the county's elected governing board, commissioners are the official spokespersons for the residents at large in Juab County.
"That is the essence of our constitutional form of representative government," they wrote. "Therefore, we urge that you comply with this request and not consider or act upon any wilderness recommendations from any private citizen, entity, organization, association or group other than the county itself until you have informed us of such recommendation, provided copies of all associated maps and other documents and given us sufficient time and opportunity to comment."
In addition, commissioners requested that prime consideration be given to the input of the commission as the elected leaders in Juab County. |
