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The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial on Sunday that came out swinging against Utah politicians and naysayers of the Bureau of Land Management's proposed public lands rule.
The rule aims to put conservation and restoration on equal footing with other multiple uses of public lands, including grazing, drilling, and mining. As the Tribune editorial board notes, "outdoor recreation and tourism are clearly the economic backbone of Utah outside the Wasatch Front," employing more people and generating more income than ranching, drilling and mining put together, and "federal land should obviously be managed in a way that, whenever logical, recognizes, protects, even expands, that use."
Emphasizing that all 23 million acres of land managed by the BLM in Utah "belong to every American who lives and works in Utah," as well as Americans living in every state of the nation, "and generations yet unborn," the Tribune editorial board calls on the rule's critics, including members of Utah's congressional delegation, to recognize that conservation can also be the highest and best use of federal land, and may indeed be a more successful approach to facilitating economic growth.
BLM Restoration Landscapes: San Luis Valley and Lower Pecos
In celebration of the Bureau of Land Management's announcement of $161 million to fund Restoration Landscapes, Look West is highlighting landscapes across the West each day. Today's landscapes are Colorado's San Luis Valley and New Mexico's Lower Pecos. At the headwaters of the Rio Grande, the San Luis Valley provides essential wetlands and riparian habitat for birds and other wildlife. The restoration projects planned for the area will foster climate resilience while benefiting historically underserved, disproportionately impacted communities. Restoring the landscape around the Lower Pecos will enhance recreation and hunting opportunities for rural communities and enhance vital habitat for numerous protected species. Across the two landscapes, BLM will spend over $13 million to restore more than 2.6 million acres.
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What is new about this case is how the leadership of Multnomah County [Oregon] is utilizing irrefutable climate science to hold corporate polluters accountable for their role in causing a discreet and disastrous event, as well as recent wildfires.”
