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US Government Issues Final Utah Monument Plan

Associated Press

   SALT LAKE CITY - The U.S. government's final management plan for lands
   in and around a Utah national monument that President Donald Trump
   downsized doesn't include many new protections for the cliffs, canyons,
   waterfalls and arches found there, but it 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 doesn't 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.
   At the same time, the agency tweaked the plan from last year to call
   for new recreation management plans to address impacts on several
   highly visited areas, opens fewer acres to ATVs and nixes 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 (3,488 square kilometers) cut from the monument. Last
   year, Interior Department leaders rescinded a plan to sell 2.5 square
   miles (6.5 square kilometers) of that land after it was included in the
   draft management proposal and drew backlash from environmentalists.

   Conservation and paleontology groups have vehemently opposed the
   downsizing of the monument and have lawsuits pending challenging the
   move.

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