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Public Lands Initiative on Wednesday's Access Utah

suwa.org

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, “in what they characterized as a sweeping gesture of compromise, Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz unveiled their plan to resolve decades of deadlock over how eastern Utah's public lands are managed even as environmental and tribal groups declared the proposal "dead on arrival" and a shameless giveaway to oil and gas interests.” The bill “would set aside special landscapes like Cedar Mesa, San Rafael Swell and Labyrinth Canyon, while expediting mineral development in areas deemed less worthy of protection.”

 

 

au_2-10-16_part_2.mp3
Listen to Part Two of the Public Land Initiative Conversation on Access Utah

The Utah Public Lands Initiative Act, three years in development, is, according to the offices of Reps. Bishop and Chaffetz, "rooted in the belief that conservation and economic development can coexist and make Utah a better place to live, work, and visit.” Rep. Bishop says the bill, which has been described as a “Grand Bargain,” rests on four pillars: certainty, recreation, economic development and conservation.

  

UPR Moab Correspondent Jon Kovash reports that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is skeptical of the initiative. SUWA Executive Director Scott Groene says “the discussion becomes, is it just a mechanism to try and run the clock out on President Obama using the Antiquities Act to preserve the Bears Ears.” The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, including members of the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Indian Tribe, is calling on President Obama to create a Bears Ears National Monument.  

On Wednesday’s Access Utah we’ll explore these important issues. Tom Williams’ guests will include Rep. Rob Bishop; Rep. Jason Chaffetz; UPR Moab Correspondent Jon Kovash; and representatives from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.

We want to hear from you as well. You can email us right now to upraccess@gmail.com and you can call us during the program on Wednesday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. Our call-in phone number is 1-800-826-1495. And you can comment on the initiative, directly to the Congressmen, at utahpli.com.

Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.