The Bureau of Land Management announced at the end of July that it will begin working on an updated Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
In a process that will likely take well over a year to complete, the BLM has opened the public scoping period in which they will gather input from locals and other interested parties on how the public wants the land to be managed. Those comments will then be used to develop a draft plan.
The Monument, which was established by executive order by President Bill Clinton, was later reduced in size by President Donald Trump, and then restored last October by President Joe Biden. That restoration triggered the need for a new Resource Management Plan.
A national monument is a form of federal land protection, but as Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance wrote, “the devil is always in the details when it comes to honoring the letter and spirit of the monument’s proclamation. That’s why it’s so important that people like you, who know and love this wild landscape, take time to participate in the planning process.”
Environmental groups are likely to offer alternative plans to the BLM, seeking to reduce grazing and resource use, and restrict access to some areas, with science as the main focus.
The first of three in-person open house meetings about the planning process was held at the Escalante Showhouse on August 24 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. An informal inventory showed that at 6:30, between 40 and 50 people were at the open house and about 70% of the cars parked outside the Showhouse had Utah plates.
The second meeting was scheduled in Kanab on August 31.
The final meeting will be held on September 7 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Panguitch Elementary School, and this will provide the local public the chance to talk to monument staff about the proposed changes.
– by AJ Martel
Feature image caption: A nice view over “the blues,” part of the Grand Staircase in Escalante, Utah. Courtesy AJ Martel.