The Emery County Public Lands council talked of the dry year the county is having at their January meeting. Luckily one week after the meeting a storm came into the county to help out.
Rod Player was reappointed as the chairman of the group and Ed Geary as the vice chairman. The board approved their meeting schedule which will be the first Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. with the exception of July when a field trip will be planned.
Player read the mission statement of the public lands council. He said this mission statement has not changed since the council was formed in 1996.
The idea of working and planning with state and federal agencies has given Emery County the chance to comment and be involved with these processes. The county can give feedback to the agencies and it has worked well over the years.
The mission statement itself refers back to Emery County’s general plan. The state legislature mandated each county address 27 points a couple of years back. Emery County didn’t have a lot to do when this mandate came out because the county’s general plan is very complete. The last revision of the plan was done in 2016 with the help of Val Payne.
Randy Johnson reported the only thing being worked on in Washington was the tax bill and nothing has been done as of yet to move the Emery County lands bill forward. The bill will be introduced by John Curtis in the house and it will move forward quickly there. On the senate side they probably won’t do much with it until fall.
Johnson said, “Emery County is the poster child of how things can be done in public lands. We work on issues in the right way. “
Johnson said there is enthusiasm for Emery County’s bill in Washington and draft legislation is being developed.
Sherrel Ward, council member said the climate in Washington couldn’t be better for getting the bill passed. He had watched a hearing where mine officials had been working on a needed permit for 22 years and now it looks like it will move along.
“The permittees on the Sinbad are hauling water to their cattle,” said Ward. Which is time consuming and expensive.
Marc Stilson from the Division of Water Rights said the Adobe Wash debris basin was completed in December. This basin will help divert water into the basin so the debris can settle out of the water before it is moved into the Adobe Wash Reservoir. This debris basin will help prevent the reservoir from filling with sediment materials.
Stilson said they will be watching some water bills coming up in the legislature including surplus water contracts.
Stilson said they toured some water projects in Carbon County where farmers were changing crop types or crop rotation to conserve more water to send down stream. Four users on the Carbon canal participated in the program.
Ward commented there is a danger in not putting water to beneficial use and allowing it to flow down stream.
Darren Olsen from the forest service introduced the new archaeologist Sarah to the lands council. She works out of the Ferron office and works closely with Charmaine from the Price office.
Olsen said it’s scary how little snow there is. He appreciates the work Ray and others have put into the forest plan revision meetings. On Jan. 18 there will be a cooperating agencies review of the plan. On Jan. 26, the plan will go out for public comment. Comments are requested on whether the Duck Fork stream should be listed as a wild and scenic river segment.
Ray Petersen, public lands director said he spoke to Justin Hart, the DWR aquatics manager and he said there’s no need for protection above Duck Fork. There is 50 miles of stream below Duck Fork which will sustain the Colorado Cutthroat trout that have been raised. The work the DWR has done might make it eligible, but the county’s position is there is no need to have the stream above Duck Fork classified as wild and scenic.
The forest service is working on the canyons logging project which will cover 33,000 acres from White Mountain to Miller’s Flat reservoir. The scoping for the project went out in Nov. 2017 and only six comments were received and they were all positive in support of the project. The project will move forward with NEPA this winter and the field work will be done in the summer. “It’s a big project and a good one,” said Olsen.
Olsen explained a map which showed the Manti-LaSal forest and the various fuels treatments and controlled burns that have been completed over the years. “This forest has been very active with projects on the ground.”
Olsen said areas are evaluated for their potential for controlled burns or for timbering. The type of wood and whether or not it’s marketable is also a big factor. If an area under consideration is in a roadless area this would increase the cost of a harvest.
Randall Stilson, board member encouraged Olsen to work with the dedicated hunters on thistle removal programs. He also encouraged campers to cut thistle in campgrounds.
Olsen agreed it’s a big problem. “There’s so much thistle we can’t treat it all. We had a YCC crew last summer fight weeds. The weed crew had between three-eight members and all they did was spray weeds. Every little bit helps. We’ve also worked with ranchers on livestock eating weeds. We have some pack sprayers, we’ve given to permittees to spray. There is thistle throughout the forest. The Seeley fire brought in thistle and hopefully as the aspen grows it will get crowded out,” said Olsen.
Kevin Albrecht is the wildlife biologist for the Ferron Office. He said he is now on the Wildlife Board for the state and he encourages input before issues are voted on in board meetings. The board meets seven times a year to address issues pertaining to the wildlife in Utah.
The DWR has been participating in big horn sheep relocation projects. A fishing contest held at Scofield to catch chubs only caught 12 chubs. Last year they caught 300, so efforts to reduce the chub in Scofield are working.
Petersen said work with the state parks to expand Goblin Valley State Park is continuing slowly. He said the county has reported to the BLM for several years the impacts in that area need to be addressed but to date there hasn’t been anything done. Trail counters are going to be installed to try to count the amount of use in the area surrounding Goblin Valley.
Ice flows around Wrigley Stream have created dangerous conditions on that forest road. The forest service will put up signs warning of the ice flow.
Petersen attended the Colorado River water users convention in Las Vegas. The president of the association is from California and he was very interested in the conservation programs upstream and in keeping as much water as possible in reservoirs in case it’s needed downstream.
Petersen said there was a commissioner from Grand County, Colo. at the meetings and he told of how they stopped water transfers, if they hadn’t of done that 80 percent of their water would have been sent to Denver which was in another basin.
Petersen said the meetings were very interesting and there were several people there looking for water. “Rural Utah is not represented well at these meetings,”said Petersen. Jay Mark Humphrey from the Emery Water Conservancy District also went to the meetings.
[dfads params='groups=4969&limit=1&orderby=random']
[dfads params='groups=1745&limit=1&orderby=random']