On Monday the Bureau of Land Management rejected a request by environmental group Grand Staircase Escalante Partners to amend the minutes of the December Management Advisory Committee meeting for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). Partners’ proposed amendment would have violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
Last month The Byway broke the news that the BLM is considering hiring Partners (GSEP) to complete GSENM’s science plan. Since then Partners leadership has been “nervous” about how public attention could affect Partners’ involvement in the planning process, according to one MAC member.
Also since the February 28 Byway article, Partners has tried to retroactively alter the minutes of the December MAC meeting to “clarify” their position. However, the Department of Interior (DOI) and the BLM questioned whether retroactively altering the December meeting minutes, as Partners had requested, would constitute an ethics violation.
The Management Advisory Committee (MAC) comprises multiple perspectives from scientists and locals in advising the BLM on how to manage the monument. Partners staff hold two of the 12 committee seats, with Partners’ Scott Berry representing dispersed outdoor recreation. Now Berry is also president of Partners, which has sought to restrict recreation.
In previous MAC meetings, Berry made comments which some members say reveal Partners’ real intent to use the science plan for restricting recreation on the monument.
“I guess, just would wonder if you [the BLM] are going to be able to include in your future planning, ways to reduce visitation,” Berry said in the July MAC meeting. “If we made it harder for people to visit the monument, that would serve the goal of protecting and conserving objects and values.”
Such comments “have haunted him ever since,” one member said. “That has made the Partners incredibly nervous, and now [Berry] is trying to backtrack,” say, by altering the minutes of past meetings.
In an effort to “clarify” Partners’ position on the monument, Scott Berry wrote the MAC committee asking to add six new paragraphs to the December meeting minutes, already three months old. Making the addition even more of an awkward fit, the minutes of that particular meeting comprised an actual transcript of the entire meeting, rather than an easily-adjustable summary.
Berry’s proposed addition clarified Partners’ position and stated that, among other things, “the BLM has not turned over any aspect of GSENM planning … to GSEP.”
In a March 9 internal email obtained by The Byway, Escalante resident Dr. Bill Weppner, who serves as chairman of the committee, rejected the request. He wrote to the committee stating the meeting minutes “should not be used as a vehicle to retroactively ‘clarify’, espouse, or document any position of that NGO [Partners] as if it were legitimately a part of the GSENM MAC meeting discussion.”
Dr. Weppner then sought counsel from the DOI, asking if any ethics rules addressed this situation.
Berry was unhappy with the committee’s decision. After the minutes had been certified, he made the same request a second time on March 29. “I do request that my requested clarification be included in the record of the meeting, with a notation that the chairperson refused to certify the addition to the minutes,” Berry wrote.
Weppner wrote the committee again explaining his denial. “This is not an issue of the GSENM MAC members agreement or disagreement with Scott Berry’s request,” he wrote. “At a minimum, it is a matter of complying with the FACA [Federal Advisory Committee Act] to truthfully and accurately document to the public what was discussed in the GSENM MAC meeting. Beyond that, there may be additional ethical and/or conflict of interest questions for the DOI/BLM to struggle with from Scott Berry’s continuing efforts to alter the public record.”
Then on March 31 Weppner implored the BLM to intervene. “Take action to stop Scott Berry’s continued requests to manipulate the true and accurate record of the GSENM MAC meeting,” Weppner wrote. “That action must be properly documented for complete transparency to both the public and all GSENM MAC members.”
In response, BLM manager Harry Barber wrote a letter to Partners denying Berry’s request on April 3. “If the committee member wishes to clarify intent of statements made in previous minutes or add to the record, this may be done formally by adding to the agenda for the upcoming meeting,” Barber wrote.
As the controversy swirls, the BLM has delayed holding another MAC meeting since December. Original plans called for a meeting in February, but the BLM opted instead to delay the meeting until after May, when the three-year terms of several local MAC members expire. It is expected that those members, including Weppner, will not be reappointed to the board, but rather, be replaced by several new “special governmental employees” such as scientists.
The BLM will not state who drafted the new MAC charter, which reduces the number of seats held by locals. But local MAC members believe the change in the charter was intended to reduce local input and put the committee in the control of non-governmental organizations such as Partners.
Meanwhile Weppner, as committee chair, is working to assemble an agenda to publicly advertise for an upcoming meeting in June. He mused, though, that some members aligned with Partners would probably challenge his authority in drafting such an agenda now, for a future meeting held after he is sure to be “retired” from the committee.
Previously The Byway reported on MAC members’ fears that the BLM would hire Partners to complete the monument’s science plan. Since that time, however, it seems increasingly likely that the BLM would not hire Partners directly, but hire another private third party which would then contract with Partners to do the work. Such an arrangement may help the BLM deny having hired Partners directly, even if it is Partners that is doing the work through a third party such as EMPSi, an environmental engineering firm.
Partners’ response to The Byway has been brisk since the February 28 article. “The Byway really stepped in a dung pile this time,” wrote one Partners board member. Another wrote, “I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Martel was manipulated.” Berry wrote that Partners had not been hired by the BLM to do any planning. At least not yet. But he stopped short of denying that the BLM was considering doing so, which is what sources had alleged.
– by AJ Martel
Feature image caption: The road to Spencer Flat near its junction with Highway 12 east of Escalante, April 4, 2023.
AJ Martel – Escalante
AJ Martel is the youth coordinator at The Byway, but he is involved in most everything. He and his family live in Escalante, and they love it here! AJ has found Utah’s small towns quite inviting and under-defended, which is why he’s so involved with the paper. What AJ loves to do most, though, is serve his community. That is clear through everything he writes and does for Escalante, Utah.