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Oil leases in Utahs scenic Nine Mile Canyon will be up for bid in BLMs first online auction
The Bureau of Land Management's latest offerings for oil and gas leases include parcels in Nine Mile Canyon, spurring protests from several groups that say inviting yet more development there conflicts with proper stewardship of the ancient rock art that abounds along the canyon walls.
The federal agency was also lambasted from the opposite direction by state officials who say the BLM is not offering enough parcels for lease in defiance of its multiple-use mission and its own area management plans.
On Dec. 13, Utah BLM officials will accept online bids for 28 parcels covering 12,224 acres in the BLM's Green River District, managed by the Price and Vernal field offices. Two of the parcels, totaling 1,550 acres, are in Nine Mile, the archaeological district east of Wellington that is much longer than its name might suggest. It's been dubbed "the world's longest art gallery" because of the profusion of petroglyphs left by Fremont Indians centuries ago, but it also overlies rich deposits of natural gas.
Several historic preservation and conservation groups joined forces to challenge these proposed leases, as well as four others near Desolation Canyon, a region proposed for wilderness.
"The BLM committed to having recreation and interpretation plans for Nine Mile Canyon — a place of incomparable cultural significance — in place by 2012 as mitigation for gas development on the adjacent [West] Tavaputs Plateau," said Dennis Willis, a retired BLM staffer who now works with the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition in Price. "Those commitments remain unmet and now the BLM wants to make leasing commitments that may preclude those planned actions. This doesn't make any sense and we call on BLM to defer offering any new leases in the Nine Mile Canyon region until it meets its outstanding obligations."
http://www.sltrib.com/news/4649896-155/oil-leases-in-utahs-scenic-nine
The federal agency was also lambasted from the opposite direction by state officials who say the BLM is not offering enough parcels for lease in defiance of its multiple-use mission and its own area management plans.
On Dec. 13, Utah BLM officials will accept online bids for 28 parcels covering 12,224 acres in the BLM's Green River District, managed by the Price and Vernal field offices. Two of the parcels, totaling 1,550 acres, are in Nine Mile, the archaeological district east of Wellington that is much longer than its name might suggest. It's been dubbed "the world's longest art gallery" because of the profusion of petroglyphs left by Fremont Indians centuries ago, but it also overlies rich deposits of natural gas.
Several historic preservation and conservation groups joined forces to challenge these proposed leases, as well as four others near Desolation Canyon, a region proposed for wilderness.
"The BLM committed to having recreation and interpretation plans for Nine Mile Canyon — a place of incomparable cultural significance — in place by 2012 as mitigation for gas development on the adjacent [West] Tavaputs Plateau," said Dennis Willis, a retired BLM staffer who now works with the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition in Price. "Those commitments remain unmet and now the BLM wants to make leasing commitments that may preclude those planned actions. This doesn't make any sense and we call on BLM to defer offering any new leases in the Nine Mile Canyon region until it meets its outstanding obligations."
http://www.sltrib.com/news/4649896-155/oil-leases-in-utahs-scenic-nine
