After Chairman Edward Geary opened the meeting Commissioner J. R. Nelson gave a report on the Daggett County Public Land Initiative Proposal. He stated the proposal follows Emery County’s Land Use format. It involves the staff of Congressman Bishop, Governor Herbert, SITLA, leaders of conservation organizations, including SUWA, Grand Canyon Trust, Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club who worked to finalize the Daggett County proposal. We have also included these entities in preparing the Emery County Public Lands Use Initiative. An interesting part of this proposal is that the environmental parties agreed to ask Congressional sponsors to remove Daggett County from the Red Rock Wilderness Act. I would view that as I would view exempting Utah from the Antiquities Act. This may sound strange, but Alaska and Wyoming are both exempted from the Antiquities Act. I would like to see Emery County exempted from the Red Rock Wilderness Area. The Red Rock Wilderness Area is a 1.5 million acre wilderness proposal. The Emery County Public Lands Use proposal is for about 500,000 acres. Daggett County truly has a groundbreaking agreement. Randy Johnson said this has become a way to do business and Emery County can take a great deal of credit for that.
Marc Stilson from the Division of Water Rights gave the first government agencies report. The Division of water rights has approved a new application for a small pond. The pond will be located across from Fullers Bottom associated with the old wells that Pacifi-Corp and Utah Power and Light drilled in the 1980s. One of those wells has some artesian water pressure on it. The small pond would be stocked with round tail chub fish. This would be another resource for the DWR. The wells were originally drilled to obtain water in a drought situation.
Orangeville City has a permit to remove sediment from under the Orangeville Bridge to reduce flooding and is working on that project.
Division Wildlife Resources represented by Justin Hart the Aquatics manager reported the bear frequenting the Elmo area had to be euthanized. The tranquilizers did not work due to the thick layer of fat on the rump. The DWR officers working in Emery County have been really busy and have a couple of cases that will go the county attorney. The pheasant hunt at Desert Lake and the Huntington game farm was successful and the hunters bagged a lot of birds. Dec. 6 there will be a bighorn sheep watch. The plan is to meet at 8 a.m. at the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River. Dec. 12 there will be hunter safety instruction in Price. Interested persons should call the DWR office. “We just finished the gill netting surveys in Joe’s Valley, Scofield, Cleveland, Mammoth and Electric Lake. We saw a lot of nice quality fish in each of those locations. We were disappointed to find Utah Chubs in the Mammoth reservoir. They were 6 to 7 inches in length. They are a terrible fish in a trout fishery. We stocked tiger muskies in Joes Valley Reservoir this year and are checking below the dam to make sure none of them go below the dam.
“Our aquatic and invasive species work this year required us to spend a lot of time on the boat ramp at Lake Powell. We were checking boats and educating people about the invasive species and how to prevent them being carried to other Utah lakes. We inspected more than 3,000 boats. Statewide the water samples we have taken this year show no invasive species present.
James Thomas DWR Conservation officer who works out of Emery County has had some problems in the past with the late season elk hunt over near the Huntington Power Plant. Some people have been accessing private property up on the Stump Flat area and hunting there. That place is posted for no trespassing and also there are some firearms restrictions on that land. Spread the word about not hunting there.
The School and Institutional Trust Lands representative stated SITLA sold an 80-acre parcel in the Green River Industrial Park and we are working to sell two other parcels in that same industrial park. SITLA plans to participate in the Huntington Creek Watershed plan. In October we had our mineral lease offering and we had four parcels of four units in the Walker Flat area and all four of those sold. In the mineral lease program with the competitive bids netted about 1.5 million dollars.
SITLA is cooperating with the plan to expand the Goblin Valley State Park.
The Manti-LaSal National Forest representative stated the Forest Service has put in log structures in the right and left forks of Huntington Creek to catch debris if the above logjam breaks. There is no new information about the Range Amendment. Christmas tree sales have started.
The Utah State Parks and Recreation representative said Huntington and Millsite are doing very well. September almost doubled last year’s revenue. Fishing at Millsite is fantastic. We are switching to our snow grooming for the winter and marking our trails. Please don’t steal our orange poles.
The Washington Delegation Staff representing Jason Chaffetz reported San Juan County is holding public comment meetings about public land issues in several towns. Each county is going about their own process.
Senator Mike Lee’s representative said the Senator would like the Payment In Lieu of Taxes or PILT program removed from the farm bill and become a stand-alone bill.
Bureau of Land Management representative said right after Thanksgiving we will start selling our trees. There is a road inventory going on in our area and right now they are in Capitol Reef.
We are working on a track South of Cedar Mountain, which we call the Green River, cut off. We are just starting and wanted you to know it is being considered.
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