
Enviromental Impact Statement on Grazing for Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument
November 05, 2013FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE
GRAZING PLAN EIS PUBLIC SCOPING MEETINGS:
The BLM has scheduled public meetings in Kanab, Escalante and Salt Lake City (Dec. 10-12 respectively).
- Dec. 10 in Kanab at the Monument Headquarters building, 669 S. Hwy 89A;
- Dec. 11 in Escalante at the Interagency Visitor Center, 755 W. Main;
- Dec. 12 in Salt Lake City at the downtown city library.
BLM MONITORING FIELD TRIPS
The BLM has also scheduled four field trips in Escalante (Nov 7 and 9) and Kanab (Nov. 13 and 16), to inform the public on how they do rangeland monitoring and long term trend transects.
- Location: Escalante Interagency Visitor Center
- Time(s): Nov. 7th 1-3 PM; Nov. 9th 9 AM-Noon
- Location: Kanab BLM Visitor Center
- Time(s): Nov. 13th 1-3 PM; Nov. 16th. 9 AM-Noon
Note: The BLM is asking attendees to arrive 15 min. prior to the meeting times.
NEWS STORY
http://www.kcsg.com/view/full_story/23922477/article-Public-Invited-to-BLM-Land-Health-Workshops?instance=more_local_news1
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The scoping period will end 30 days after the final public scoping meeting and all comments to the BLM must be submitted by that date which falls on Saturday January 11th, thus making the final date for submitting comments Monday, January 13th. We are hoping that as many of you as possible will be able to attend field trips and public meetings to ask questions and make substantive comments to the BLM regarding this process.
The Grand Canyon Trust will be continuing to voice our support for a collaborative process that utilizes multi-stakeholder field trips and discussions. We will also be pushing the Monument to choose an alternative that:
- Considers more than just cattle forage and utilization levels (e.g., biological soil crusts, native plant species diversity, intact riparian areas).
- Engages diverse stakeholders in grazing decisions (not just the BLM range staff and permittees).
- Provides for a diversity of grazing arrangements, including areas of long-term reduced use, non-use, closed allotments, and experimental grazing methods.

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