Visitors up in all local state parks

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

In the October Public Lands Meeting the council heard from members of the various state and federal agencies. From the Bureau of Land Management Becky Anders said the San Rafael is starting to become busy again after a couple of slow summer months. The right of way for the Little Wild Horse road has been issued to the county in perpetuity by the BLM. The San Rafael desert master leasing plan is in the scoping phase. There will be meetings in Castle Dale and Green River concerning the master lease plan. It is hoped the master lease plan will resolve long standing oil and gas lease issues. The BLM hopes by doing environmental assessments they will be able to get around some of the litigation holding up projects.
Once the process is complete, more leases can be issued without doing another environmental assessment. An EA is also being conducted on a drilling project on the Tavaputs. It will be out for review in November.
The BLM recommended 32 parcels for lease for their next sale. A wild burro gather will take place in the Sinbad area to remove 50 head of burro. They will try to bait and catch the burros. There are also plans to implement herd control measures with sterilization and other methods of control. Permits are being issued in the Mounds area and Mussentuchit for paleontological digs.
Mark. H. Williams, land council member reported at the head of Sinbad, the cows are inside the fence near the American Indian writings. He also reported Swasey’s Cabin is deteriorating and he would like to see repair work done there, the roof is in bad condition and the pipe that fills the water trough is broken so the trough doesn’t fill with water.
Chris Wood from the Division of Wildlife Resources reported gill net surveys are taking place at the reservoirs. The nets are put out the day before and then pulled in the next day. It’s a good indicator of what fish are in the water and their size. Habitat work is taking place throughout the state. Work will continue this year on Cedar Mountain where bullhog treatments and lop and scatter methods will be used. The bullhog will treat 431 acres and 200 acres of lop and scatter. The crews will also have a fly over to reseed the disturbed area. Wood said they have seen an increase in spring flows where the pinyon and juniper have been thinned.
The waterfowl opener for youth is on Oct. 10. Youth hunts will take place at Desert Lake and the Huntington game farm. Planting of pheasants has taken place to help the youth hunters be more successful. The DWR also has walk-in access areas with agreements with land owners to allow hunters and fisherman access to private property. The adult bird hunts will open the first weekend of November.
Hunts have been going well with the archery and muzzleloader hunts complete and the spike and bull elk open until Oct. 15. The deer rifle hunt begins on Oct. 17-25, Deer populations are on the rise. Bobcat permits are on sale now and the cougar permit draw is on now. There are extended archery hunts along the Wasatch Front. The division was pleased the sage grouse wasn’t listed. They have worked hard on habitat and research in regards to sage grouse.
Bryan Torgerson from SITLA said they are getting a new director and Kevin Carter is retiring. There were 130 applicants and five were selected for interviews. It will be announced any day.
SITLA is just waiting on the public lands initiative with Cong. Rob Bishop’s office. Lands to be traded out will be worked on should the PLI pass in Congress. The SITLA land auction will take place Oct. 28, there isn’t any land in Emery County this time. The land at the Green River Industrial Park is available for purchase and this agreement will run out in December. SITLA hopes to close on these properties before this deadline. One company involved in wanting to purchase land is the oil refinery and railroad spur.
The Victor cemetery east of Elmo is receiving requests for burials. SITLA doesn’t want to be in the cemetery business and will look at turning that cemetery over to the county so they can oversee that cemetery.
One of the things discussed in the May meeting held in Price was the grazing rules. Torgerson said they are trying to get as much benefit as they can out of SITLA lands. When SITLA grazing permits are ready to expire they will be advertised on the SITLA website. SITLA permits last for 15 years. An incumbent permittee can still match the bid if a higher bid is received.
Petersen said when the SITLA board was here they held a field trip the day before their meetings and exchanged good information with the board members.
Darren Olsen from the forest service said they signed the consent letter on the Greens Hollow coal lease. Now it will continue on to BLM and DOGM for their approval. The sage grouse was not listed which is good news, there is a 200 plus page guidance report on how to handle sage grouse and their habitat. Two areas are listed as priority habitat. One from Joe’s Valley to the Miller’s Flat area and the Horn Mountain area. Sage grouse have been in those areas historically. Olsen said the forest service will adhere to the record of decision concerning sage grouse. These regulations could affect grazing and mining. For example, Olsen said no new fences can be constructed within 1.2 miles of a known lek area and no new water developments unless beneficial to the sage grouse. He doesn’t think there will be any problems with grazing. A review will take place in five years and the situation with sage grouse re-evaluated.
Olsen reported timber sales are still ongoing. “We are trying to get the dead timber off the mountain,” said Olsen. There has been some helicopter harvests and currently there are five active timber harvests. There are buyers for the timber in Gunnison and Moroni.
Aaron Farmer from state parks said visitation is up at all local parks. The docks have been removed, but you can still launch boats. One issue the parks may have to deal with is how to handle overcrowding in the parks on busy holiday weekends. A golf tournament will be held at the Green River Golf Course on Oct. 24. The disc golf tournament will be on Nov. 7-8. There are 60 players from Colorado and Utah signed up to play on the Green River golf course disc golf course.
State parks has a $16 million surplus and the local parks have some projects planned which could make use of some of those funds. Farmer said any outlays from this money have to be approved by the state legislature. A new restroom is planned for Goblin Valley that flushes and a new restroom and paving the boat dock at Green River state park.
Kelsey Berg from Cong. Jason Chaffetz office said he put in for the speaker of the House position. The Public Lands Initiative is taking longer than expected. They didn’t like the language that came back from the lawyers so Fred Ferguson, chief of staff for Cong. Chaffetz is working on the language and Casey Snyder from Cong. Bishop’s office. It’s taking a lot longer, but they want it to be right. The draft language and the maps will come out at the same time. Berg said they need help with Sen. Hatch’s office for support of the public lands initiative. Sen. Hatch doesn’t think it’s passable in the Senate with the Antiquities Language in it.
Berg thinks they have built support with the Department of Interior and with Pres. Obama by working on a grass roots approach to public lands management.
Williams asked Berg to relate to her boss that access in National Parks for older people is very limited.
Commissioner Keith Brady said the tour with the legislators went well. “This is a crucial time for our county,” said Commissioner Brady.
Petersen said on the tour with the legislators he showed them where the WSA is just beyond Ghost Rocks. He showed them wilderness areas and promoted multiple use. He pointed out the Hunter power plant in the distance and the clean air, Emery County enjoys. He said there were many comments on the coal fired plants and the clean air. He said for some of them the only information they had was mailed to them from HEAL Utah and it talked about the negative air shed because of the power plants. They had been getting information on our air from others, who have their own agenda. One third of the legislators had never been to Emery County before. Petersen said one of the legislators asked what Emery County would get out of Rep. Bishop’s public lands initiative. Petersen answered the county would get some certainty without the rules changing with each administrator in charge of agencies.
Brady said economic development is uncertain in the county because developers are holding back because they don’t know what’s going to happen in regards to public land.
Sherril Ward, public lands council said the new water year started Oct. 1 and to date we are at 60 percent. The reservoirs are not as full as they were last year. Irrigators are still using water until Nov. 1. Huntington North is 49 percent; Miller’s Flat 39 percent; Cleveland 32 percent; Joe’s Valley 61 percent with 10,000 acre feet belonging to Rocky Mountain Power. Electric Lake is at 59 percent; Huntington Reservoir at 59 percent and Millsite at 55 percent. The county is in need of good snowpack this winter.
There has been some fourth crop hay this season. Val Payne said signs are pointing to a good winter, the cows were eager to get off the mountain even though there was plenty of feed there for them.