On August 30, the Bureau of Land Management released its proposed resource management plan and final environmental impact statement for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The new proposed alternative, Alternative E, is based on Alternative C from the draft plan. It also rearranges some of the acreage and includes elements from other alternatives.
Since February 2022, the BLM has been rushing to complete a resource management plan (RMP) for the Grand Staircase that was supposed to be done by spring of this year. As reported when the draft plan was announced last year, Alternative C was the BLM’s preferred alternative and was the second-most restrictive.
The BLM’s proposed alternative for the Grand Staircase, Alternative E, is an entirely new one based on the management areas outlined in Alternative C with some key changes. Some restrictions, such as those on target shooting, were relaxed considerably to align with state law and public comments. Others leaned even more toward the restrictive side of the original alternatives.
BLM asserts that Alternative E is within the range of those presented in the draft plan.
Here are the key differences between the plans:
| Draft Alternative C | Proposed Alternative E | |
| Management Areas | Four areas: – Front Country (2%) – Passage (3%) – Outback (35%) – Primitive (60%) | Outback decreased to 30% and Primitive increased to 65%. |
| Target Shooting | – Prohibited in Front Country and Primitive Areas. – Prohibited within .25 miles of residences, campgrounds, and specific routes. – 1.168 million acres closed. | – Prohibited only in Front Country. – Changed to within 600 feet of residences, campgrounds, and specific routes. – 163,000 acres closed. – Recreational shooting will exclude hunting. |
| Vehicle Use | – Open: 0 acres – Limited: 655,700 ac. – Closed: 1,209,900 ac. – V-road is the only “designated route” to be closed. | No major changes other than to adjust for management area acreage. |
| Grazing | – 86% available. – Allotments not currently under permit would be closed. – Would reduce acreage available for grazing by 75,200 acres (4%). | – 93% available. – Four additional allotments currently under permit would be closed. – Would reduce the acres available for grazing by 380,000 acres (18%). – 54 fewer AUMs than under C. |
| Noncommercial Harvest of Forestry Products | 88,000 acres open. | 649,700 acres open. |
A few more things to know about Grand Staircase Alternative E:
A protest period was held between August 30 and September 30. The permit holders of the four allotments to be closed as well as the Garfield County Commission have taken steps to defend the public’s rights to use the land.
BLM writes that “the signing of a Record of Decision and publication of the Final RMP/Final EIS is anticipated to occur in December 2024.”
– Abbie Call, The Byway
Feature image caption: One map from the BLM’s proposed RMP showing areas closed to vehicular travel. Note that most physical routes are not “designated” routes and therefore are not acknowledged on the map.
Abbie Call – Cannonville/Kirksville, Missouri
Abbie Call is a journalist and editor at The Byway. She graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in editing and publishing from Brigham Young University. Her favorite topics to write about include anything local, Utah’s megadrought, and mental health and meaning in life. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hanging out with family, quilting and hiking.
Find Abbie on Threads @abbieb.call or contact her at [email protected].