Feds Issue Final Plan for Shrunken National Monument
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The federal government’s final management plan for lands in and around a Utah national monument that President Trump downsized does not include many new protections for the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls and arches there, but does include a few more safeguards than were in a proposal issued last year.
The Bureau of Land Management’s plan for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southwestern Utah codifies that the lands cut out of the monument will be open to mineral extraction such as oil, gas and coal as expected, according to a plan summary the agency provided to The Associated Press.
The agency chose an option that does not add any areas of critical environmental concern, increases lands open to cattle grazing and could raise the potential for “adverse effects” on lands and resources in the monument, the document shows.
The agency tweaked the plan from last year to call for new recreation management plans to address impacts on several highly visited areas, open fewer acres to ATVs and nix a plan that would have allowed people to collect some non-dinosaur fossils in certain areas inside the monument.
The agency also determined that no land will be sold from the 1,345 square miles cut from the monument. Last year, Interior Department leaders rescinded a plan to sell 2.5 square miles of that land after it was included in the draft management proposal and drew backlash from environmentalists.
Conservation and paleontology groups have vehemently opposed downsizing of the monument and have lawsuits pending challenging the move.
https://www.courthousenews.com/feds-issue-final-plan-for-shrunken-national-monument/