My wife asked me to share this with you all. A recent email she received.
Subject: Call to Action - BLM Travel Management Plans (TMPs)
Dear Commissioners,
In 2017, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a Settlement Agreement with several environmental special interest groups concerning travel management planning on public lands in Utah. Accordingly, the BLM must complete 11 new Travel Management Plans (TMPs). You can learn more about this planning process and the 11 TMPs by visiting the PLPCO TMP Website. Please share this website link with your constituents and encourage them to engage in the public process for the remaining TMPs.
The BLM has not seriously entertained comments from the State of Utah or the Utah residents most directly impacted by its decisions when making final decisions for the first three TMPs. The decisions in those TMPs were also inconsistent with state and local resource management plans. Ultimately, we need the public to push back on the eight remaining TMPs and comment on as many roads as possible. Collectively we need to submit thousands of location-specific comments that will be impossible for the BLM to reject as "non-substantive." In summary, we must continue to protect access to each road proposed for closure (or limited use), articulate why all these roads are important, and showcase how the BLM has been one-sided (and arbitrary and capricious) in its planning process and decision-making.
These decisions are not being made in Utah. They are being made in Washington DC. The State of Utah has serious concerns that we are not being equitably represented in the planning process because the current Principal Deputy Director at the BLM was the Senior Counsel and Director at the BLM Action Center for The Wilderness Society during the 2017 Settlement Agreement.
To date, three TMPs have been completed by the BLM and have resulted in the following road closures (plus other limitations). The State is actively litigating the Labyrinth Rims / Gemini Bridges TMP and San Rafael Desert TMP final decisions by the BLM.
1) Labyrinth Rims / Gemini Bridges TMP: Closed 317.2 miles of public access (including 114 miles of RS 2477 roads).
2) San Rafael Desert TMP: Closed 534 miles of public access.
3) Canyon Rims / Indian Creek TMP: Closed 46 miles of public access.
The San Rafael Swell TMP
The BLM recently released the "Preliminary Alternatives" for the San Rafael Swell TMP and "Alternative B" could close 949 miles of roads (1,577 individual roads).
A 2008 BLM planning decision determined to close 730 miles of roads in the San Rafael Swell. That closure decision was not implemented because the environmental special interest groups sued the BLM. The 2008 decision is called the "no action alternative" in the new preliminary alternatives for the San Rafael Swell TMP.
For the San Rafael Swell TMP, the underlying goal for the BLM is to close the majority of the dispersed camping areas so the public is not drawn to these remote areas for recreational purposes. There is also clear evidence that the BLM intends to limit access to State Trust Lands. Limiting or cutting off access to State Trust Lands is a significant issue for all of these TMPs.
In response to these concerns, and based on what we have learned from the previous three TMPs, the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO) has developed an interactive Comment Letter Generator Tool to enhance the public's ability to research and provide personalized feedback to the BLM on the San Rafael Swell TMP.
PLPCO will continue to improve and promote the Comment Letter Generator Tool for each of the remaining TMPs so the public can better articulate their disapproval and plead their case for not closing these roads. We encourage you to share this tool with your constituents.
PLPCO is also preparing downloadable maps in multiple formats so the public can download them to their phones and ground truth the BLM's chopping block before and during the public comment periods. Those maps will become available on the PLPCO TMP Website.
Thank you for responding to this call to action and for joining the cause of protecting access to our public lands in Utah.
Subject: Call to Action - BLM Travel Management Plans (TMPs)
Dear Commissioners,
In 2017, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) signed a Settlement Agreement with several environmental special interest groups concerning travel management planning on public lands in Utah. Accordingly, the BLM must complete 11 new Travel Management Plans (TMPs). You can learn more about this planning process and the 11 TMPs by visiting the PLPCO TMP Website. Please share this website link with your constituents and encourage them to engage in the public process for the remaining TMPs.
The BLM has not seriously entertained comments from the State of Utah or the Utah residents most directly impacted by its decisions when making final decisions for the first three TMPs. The decisions in those TMPs were also inconsistent with state and local resource management plans. Ultimately, we need the public to push back on the eight remaining TMPs and comment on as many roads as possible. Collectively we need to submit thousands of location-specific comments that will be impossible for the BLM to reject as "non-substantive." In summary, we must continue to protect access to each road proposed for closure (or limited use), articulate why all these roads are important, and showcase how the BLM has been one-sided (and arbitrary and capricious) in its planning process and decision-making.
These decisions are not being made in Utah. They are being made in Washington DC. The State of Utah has serious concerns that we are not being equitably represented in the planning process because the current Principal Deputy Director at the BLM was the Senior Counsel and Director at the BLM Action Center for The Wilderness Society during the 2017 Settlement Agreement.
To date, three TMPs have been completed by the BLM and have resulted in the following road closures (plus other limitations). The State is actively litigating the Labyrinth Rims / Gemini Bridges TMP and San Rafael Desert TMP final decisions by the BLM.
1) Labyrinth Rims / Gemini Bridges TMP: Closed 317.2 miles of public access (including 114 miles of RS 2477 roads).
2) San Rafael Desert TMP: Closed 534 miles of public access.
3) Canyon Rims / Indian Creek TMP: Closed 46 miles of public access.
The San Rafael Swell TMP
The BLM recently released the "Preliminary Alternatives" for the San Rafael Swell TMP and "Alternative B" could close 949 miles of roads (1,577 individual roads).
A 2008 BLM planning decision determined to close 730 miles of roads in the San Rafael Swell. That closure decision was not implemented because the environmental special interest groups sued the BLM. The 2008 decision is called the "no action alternative" in the new preliminary alternatives for the San Rafael Swell TMP.
For the San Rafael Swell TMP, the underlying goal for the BLM is to close the majority of the dispersed camping areas so the public is not drawn to these remote areas for recreational purposes. There is also clear evidence that the BLM intends to limit access to State Trust Lands. Limiting or cutting off access to State Trust Lands is a significant issue for all of these TMPs.
In response to these concerns, and based on what we have learned from the previous three TMPs, the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO) has developed an interactive Comment Letter Generator Tool to enhance the public's ability to research and provide personalized feedback to the BLM on the San Rafael Swell TMP.
PLPCO will continue to improve and promote the Comment Letter Generator Tool for each of the remaining TMPs so the public can better articulate their disapproval and plead their case for not closing these roads. We encourage you to share this tool with your constituents.
PLPCO is also preparing downloadable maps in multiple formats so the public can download them to their phones and ground truth the BLM's chopping block before and during the public comment periods. Those maps will become available on the PLPCO TMP Website.
Thank you for responding to this call to action and for joining the cause of protecting access to our public lands in Utah.
| Redge Johnson Director, PLPCO Deputy Director, DNR M: (801) 870-3638 E: redgejohnson@utah.gov Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office 1594 W N Temple ST. STE 320 Salt Lake City, UT 84116 | |