At the recent public lands meeting new council members were introduced. Laren Huntsman and JR Nelson were welcomed to the board and Mistie Christiansen was re-appointed. Huntsman said he is an Emery County native and attended Emery High. He went away to school and has a master’s in mechanical engineering. He is the plant manager at Hunter Power Plant. He said he has a wonderful family and is happy to be on the lands council to contribute.
Nelson said he is a retired school teacher and former commissioner for Emery County. He is interested in public lands and his family has been in Emery County forever.
Elections were held and Rod Player was appointed vice chairman and Mistie Christiansen as chairman for 2015. Player was also reappointed to be the lands council representative to the trails committee. Each council member has an assignment, Edward Geary-historical; Rod Player-Non-motorized Recreation; Bruce Wilson – At-Large; James R Nelson-At-Large; Laren Huntsman-Power Generation; Mark H. Williams-OHV, Recreation; Mistie Christiansen-Grazing, Agriculture; Sherrel Ward – Water Resources. County Attorney Mike Olsen reported on what he has found out about water bills at the legislature. He said he has asked several different people and received several opinions. In talking to lawyers involved in water law, one was extremely critical of the bill. He doesn’t think the system is broken and water issues can be addressed as law is currently written, maybe making small changes to fix small problems. The other lawyer didn’t see the bill as a problem.
He said his recommendation was to watch the bills for now. The lands council will watch the bills and be ready to state their position if need be. Nelson wondered if it was wise to wait, but voice opposition to the bills now. Ed Geary said they should oppose the bills if they move at all and let the commissioners know of the public lands council stance.
Huntsman wondered if the bill opened the gate for water transfers out of the basin. Olsen said he didn’t think it would help a water user to move water from the basin, but maybe to move it outside the service area.
It was mentioned the farm bureau is opposed to both of the water bills HB43 and HB161.
Ward said small irrigation companies can’t afford litigation. Marc Stilson from the division of water rights reported on many of the water bills. He said there was a recent settlement with the national park’s water issue at Arches. They have been working on ground water protection there for a number of years in and around the park, but Moab objected as they are looking at development along SR-191 and it would have inhibited this development.
SITLA helped out with the issue resolving that the ground water for Arches is being fed by the upper aquifer. The park’s service was agreeable. Now a Dinosaur Discovery Center is being planned at the intersection where the road turns to go up to Dead Horse Point.
Bobby Edgel reported for the division of wildlife resources, he said they have several things going on including antelope surveys. The have poacher watches ongoing as they try to control poaching and harassment of wildlife. There is great fishing at Joe’s Valley and reports of large splake being taken. There will be new chukkar guzzlers installed. An ice fishing clinic was well attended with 35-40 people taking a class and then the next day ice fishing at Scofield. They are collaring elk to study their movement and see how they are using the burned areas from the Seeley fire. Thirty-three cow elk were tagged. No elk surveys will be done this year due to lack of snow. They have done a small amount of surveying by helicopter. After an extensive analysis by the University of Idaho, it has been confirmed that the gray wolf killed in Utah on Dec. 28, 2014 is the same wolf seen in the Grand Canyon area last year.
Geneticists from the university’s Laboratory for Ecological, Evolutionary, and Conservation Genetics compared the DNA from the wolf killed in Utah with samples taken from the wolf near the Grand Canyon. The results were conclusive that it is the same wolf, identified by the Service as 914F, which was collared near Cody, Wyo. on Jan. 8, 2014 and spotted in the Grand Canyon area in the fall of last year.
The investigation into the killing of the wolf is still ongoing. The status of the gray wolf in southern Utah is endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Edgel said they receive reports of wolf sightings a lot. He said cow elk hunts were better this year than last, but still down due to the lack of snow.
The rule was changed so farmers can defend their crops against bears. Thirteen bears were shot this past year in the Green River melon fields. You can now shoot a bear in your livestock. More bear tags are also being authorized due to increases in the bear population. Ninety bears were euthanized last year.
John Andrews, the associate director of SITLA attended the meeting. He said they have been involved in Rep. Rob Bishop’s bill. They were down here several years ago and Emery County was way ahead on their public lands issues. They are working on tradeout lands if SITLA lands become trapped within protected areas. They would like to trade for other lands which could have development to generate funds for the state school trust. They are going to pull out their old maps from a couple years ago when they were working on trade out lands.
Andrews reported they continue to have significant problems with wild horses on SITLA lands in Beaver and Iron counties. SITLA director Kevin Carter has indicated to his legal staff to file a lawsuit against the BLM to require removal of the horses in the Long Mountain area of Beaver County where the wild horses are in excess of their numbers.
Ward said he supported SITLA in doing this and asked if it would be combined with the ranchers that are suing the BLM. Andrews said he wasn’t sure, but sometimes the courts will consolidate lawsuits.
Ray Petersen, public lands director wondered if SITLA would trade out of national recreation areas. Andrews replied yes they would because NRA would limit use.
Any funds SITLA generates from trade out lands will go into the land exchange distribution account. Funds from this account can go directly into a county’s general fund unlike CIB monies.
Andrews said the future is still uncertain as to how it will all work out, but currently they are trying to structure the exchange county by county, but it may be pooled in the end. If they give up land in Emery County then they would also want to acquire land in Emery County or another county.
There are laws in place as to how land exchanges should work. The legislature doesn’t want to see any net acreage increase for federal land.
The BLM representative said they held two public scoping meetings for the San Rafael travel plan. They are looking at routes that aren’t in the RMP. They are looking at each route individually. They are looking at everything from highways to cow trails to determine valid uses and impacts.
There will be a $10 per night fee for camping at Swasey’s boat ramp. Day use is still free. The BLM is seeking comments also on the bouldering activities and some areas may be closed to camping. They are working with the user groups.
Kyle Beagley from the forest service said the lands council is a good thing. He said the forest service issued an order that there would be no camping in Straight Canyon indefinitely on forest service property. Reclamation is ongoing at the Cottonwood/Wilberg Mine. County Attorney Olsen said he has had some people contact him about the gates on the forest. People are upset with the gates, they say the gates aren’t part of the forest plan. Beagley said he would have to get a history on the gates. He said he thinks mainly the gates are used to protect the gravel resource and to keep the roads from being damaged when they are wet. There is a conflict. Petersen said the gates are used so wildlife won’t be disturbed and for road damage prevention. Mainly snowmobilers and lion hunters want the gates open. They can’t drive their snowmobiles over the mud to get to where they can ride. Olsen said on the other side of the mountain, they don’t have gates. He thinks the uses should be weighed and public input gathered. Beagley said Sanpete County does want a gate at 12 mile canyon and they are looking at it because of all the costs involved with road maintenance. Beagley said the regional office asks for set dates for gate openings, a better option would be if the district office could decide opening dates for gates. Christiansen wondered if a meeting could be held to discuss a compromise.
The Green Hollow lease should come through fairly soon for Sufco mine to mine coal on that lease. Christiansen said she hasn’t received any more information about the review of the forest service plan. If meetings are held on this she wants Emery County public lands council to be included.
The Washington staff reported the representatives signed onto the healthy forest management bill. A letter was sent to all stakeholders for the land use bill. A draft map and language is coming soon.
Ron Dean reported Sen. Hatch is the President Pro-Tem of the Senate. He thinks things are finally moving in the Senate, last year they voted on 25 amendments and so far in 2015 they have voted on 40 so far. It’s important to Senator Hatch that the Senate operate as it is supposed to. Dean reported they are still educating the Eastern Senators what public lands mean to the west and to the economies of rural areas. Sen. Hatch is working on making PILT an automatically funded item and make it permanent.
There’s work to put pinyon and juniper treatments as categorical exclusions so NEPA won’t have to be done for those treatments. There’s a bill introduced that if a state has a fracking rule in place that the federal government can’t impose a fracking rule on them.
For state parks, Aaron Farmer from Goblin Valley reported they are hiring their seasonal workers and doing maintenance work. Jonathan Hunt said you can launch a boat at Huntington North. They will hold the triathlon in July at the lake and the campground is filling up fast. They are working with the forest service on grooming snowmobile trails.
Brad Peterson from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development said they are developing a recreation database which will show trails for mountain biking, hiking, etc. They are combining all info from the separate state agencies and combining in one data base. He has been reading the report issued for the case of state control of the federal lands. He said the report is fact based and doesn’t choose sides.
Ward gave the water report saying the snowpack is decreasing rapidly due to warm temperatures and no additional snow storms. January was a bad month; precipitation to date from the beginning of the current water year on Oct. 1 is 79 percent. The reservoirs are still looking good.
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