New Grand Staircase plans greenlight mining on lands Trump stripped from Utah monument
Hundreds of thousands of acres inside what used to be Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will be opened to mining and drilling under a plan the Bureau of Land Management released Friday, renewing charges that President Donald Trump’s executive action reducing the 23-year-old preserve was engineered to promote energy extraction in some of America’s most scenic landscapes.
The plans also greatly expand access for recreation on lands remaining in the monument, with expanded visitor services and signs, group size limits lifted to as many as 50 people, and allowing competitive sporting events, such as next month’s Grand to Grand Ultra footrace, which currently is routed outside the monument.
Friday’s release comes on the heels of the final management plan for Bears Ears National Monument, the other big preserve Trump eviscerated a year into his presidency.
The Staircase plan encompasses much more territory, 1.9 million acres, nearly half of which had been managed as a monument for two decades. It is actually four plans: one each for the three units remaining in the monument — Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits Plateau and Escalante Canyons — and a fourth for the 900,000 acres Trump removed.
Read more: https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2019/08/23/new-grand-staircase-plans/
(Salt Lake Tribune)
= new reply since forum marked as read
