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December 5th, 2018
It’s finally December, which means, blessedly, that Congress is about to go home! But first they’re in a frenzy to complete their work for the session and pass as many bills as possible.
Senator Orrin Hatch is trying to use this freneticism to glue the Emery County Public Land Management Act (S. 2809) to a potential public lands package being negotiated by the House and Senate.
We can’t let this happen. Contact your representatives now and tell them to oppose Sen. Hatch’s “Not-so-Swell” bill!
San Rafael River. Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA
We’ve told you in the past that the bill fails to protect deserving landscapes like the San Rafael Badlands, Muddy Creek, and Labyrinth Canyon. And while Hatch has made some changes at the margins of the bill, they are not sufficient. The bill still protects far too little land, and the places it claims to protect are riddled with off-road vehicle routes. It also releases currently protected land for a coal mine and facilitates a land exchange that would allow the State of Utah to acquire nearly 12,000 acres of proposed wilderness! Finally, it gives away federal public land to the State of Utah for an expansion of Goblin Valley State Park.
Don’t let Hatch hatch another anti-wilderness scheme! Contact your representatives now!
Bottom line: the land that we fight for is better off if the bill doesn’t pass.
Here’s what you can do. Click here to tell your members of Congress not to allow this bill to be attached to a public lands package—or any other.
Then, call the Capitol Switchboard and say it again: 202-224-3121.
Together we can make sure Sen. Hatch doesn’t get the coal mine he wants in his stocking.
Thanks for all you do!
P.S. Help us protect the San Rafael Swell in 2019 and beyond by making a tax-deductible year-end contribution to SUWA today. Click here to contribute.
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November 29th, 2018Read More »
Our e-newsletter with the latest on redrock wilderness news and events.
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November 28th, 2018
Shortly after the Trump administration took office in 2017, SUWA filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Interior and Justice Departments seeking records related to several then-pending lawsuits, including a lawsuit brought by an oil and gas trade group (Western Energy Alliance) which challenged Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms as well as the State of Wyoming’s lawsuit against Obama-era regulation of oil and gas fracking. In particular, we sought communications between the plaintiffs in those lawsuits and federal officials, concerned that one or more sweetheart settlements might be in the making.
After both Departments largely ignored our requests, SUWA filed suit in federal district court in Washington, DC seeking the release of all responsive records. After much back and forth with lawyers for the United States we began receiving a rolling production of records. We wanted to share a few notable items:
• The American Petroleum Institute’s wish list encouraging the rescission or weakening of Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms. The Trump administration has followed through with many of these proposals.
• Emails between the Western Energy Alliance and the Departments of Interior and Justice as early as February 2017 regarding the settlement of an Alliance lawsuit. These discussions ultimately led to the Interior Department rescinding key Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms.
• The National Mining Association’s wish list encouraging the rollback of Obama-era policies, including a coal leasing moratorium.
SUWA has several other outstanding FOIA requests and lawsuits regarding records related to President Trump’s attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments as well as the State of Utah’s sweeping RS 2477 litigation. We’ll keep you posted as those bear fruit.
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November 19th, 2018
Even as it solicits public comments on how to (mis)manage the illegally-reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is moving forward with two terrible “vegetation management” proposals within the original boundaries of Grand Staircase.
These two proposals would strip sagebrush and pinyon-juniper forests from more than 110,000 acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante. All told, the BLM is looking at “landscape-level project[s]” on more than 560,000 acres of your public lands.
Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA
In the Paria River watershed, the BLM is considering letting loose the chainsaws and mechanical masticators on up to 93,000 acres of public lands within a 565,000 acre area. Still in the initial scoping phase of planning, comments on the Paria River Project are due on Monday, November 26th.
In the Skutumpah Terrace area northeast of Kanab, the BLM has completed an Environmental Assessment of a “treatment” proposal to remove pinyon and juniper from more than 22,000 acres of public land. The BLM is requesting public input on this plan by Monday, December 3rd.
Large-scale vegetation removal projects are an extreme and unproven management approach that simply do not belong on our public lands, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument should certainly never be the subject of the most aggressive and invasive treatments like chaining, mastication, and mulching.
Please take a moment to join us in defending Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from bad management decisions by submitting your comments today.
Thank you for taking action.
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November 13th, 2018
This Thursday, November 15th, marks the closing of the comment period for the Trump administrations’s hastily-drafted management plans for the illegally reduced Bears Ears National Monument.
If you haven’t already done so, please click here to submit your comments now.
Copyright Jeff Foott
You’ll recall that back in August, President Trump’s Interior Department released its draft management plans for what’s left of both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, as well as the lands that were illegally excised from those monuments.
Their vision for the monuments is one of rampant oil and gas leasing, coal mining, and barely-restrained off-road vehicle use.
It was only last December that the president unlawfully attacked both of these monuments. Now his administration has put together plans that not only fail to protect the monuments’ irreplaceable values, they invite their destruction.
The public comment period for Bears Ears ends this Thursday, and the comment period for Grand Staircase-Escalante ends Nov. 30th. If you haven’t already done so, please click here to submit your comments for either or both monuments now.
Thank you for standing up for Utah’s national monuments.