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Earlier this week, associate deputy Interior secretary Karen Budd-Falen participated in an invitation-only, closed-door meeting with state and local officials to discuss national park management issues.
The meeting, convened by Utah's Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, was described as a "brainstorm" and a "government-to-government" meeting, but was not open to the media or the public. Some county commissioners and state legislators were invited, but at just below the numbers that would have triggered the state's open-meeting laws. A Utah official acknowledged that some legislators were told they couldn't attend due to concerns about the size of the meeting.
Topics discussed included eliminating reservation and timed-entry programs and other permit systems, allowing off-highway vehicle access in Capitol Reef and Canyonlands national parks, and other complaints from the state and counties about "unacceptable" management strategies designed to protect park resources from unmanaged overuse. "It really was just a whole day of wishlists," said Barbara Bruno, mayor of Springdale, who attended the meeting. "It was all about how these properties are economic drivers for the state. Nobody talked about preserving the natural resources."
"The secrecy around yesterday’s meeting says it all. Instead of an open and transparent conversation, the state of Utah ran a closed-door event where it unveiled its management priorities and direction for the NPS units in Utah," Neal Clark, wildlands director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said in a statement. "Americans should see the State’s actions for what they clearly are: a power grab to gain control of and undermine the National Parks and federal public lands in Utah."
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We relied on this ecosystem for thousands of years, and now we don’t have to ask permission to gather our foods and medicines there anymore. It’s a sanctuary, and a place where we can go and be, and have our own sovereignty over how we want to exist on the landscape.”
