Emery County, UT, Wants A National Monument, With Lots And Lots And Lots Of ATV Trails

[hatrack]

Know what? Fuck these people. They can go kneel to Orrin and the Orange God and see what happens with their bold plan for a giant ATV park supported by federal tax money.

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As in coal country nationwide, the region is feeling the pinch of a declining industry. Cheaper natural gas is the new fuel of choice, and five of Emery County’s eight coal mines have closed in the past decade—the latest in 2015, taking 182 union jobs with it. The clock is also ticking for the two coal-fired plants—now 40 and 44 years old—that are the county’s largest employer. Population has declined 7 percent since 2010. All of this has led some in the community to look to outdoor recreation as a way to bolster the economy. Joe’s Valley is a start, but mountain biking remains largely untapped (especially for bike-mad Utah), and Emery’s real underutilized resource is the San Rafael Swell, a million-acre chunk of redrock desert every bit as spectacular as Utah’s five national parks.

In a move surprisingly divergent from the Utah communities fighting to roll back Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, Emery County officials are lobbying the federal government to increase protection on their local public lands. The Emery County Public Land Management Act, introduced in Congress this month, would create a massive National Conservation Area out of the San Rafael Swell and designate some 577,986 acres as wilderness, a statewide increase of about 50 percent—significant in a state long at odds with the designation. Not everyone is happy about it. Some locals don’t want their community overrun by jeepers, cyclists, and selfie-stick-wielding tourists. Others resent any restrictions on local lands. But Emery’s nascent experiment may yield an alternative formula for regions stricken by collapsing extractive industries: The county wants to revitalize its community by increasing public lands protections, embracing the adventurers who recreate on them.

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The bill was introduced by Utah Representative John Curtis and Senator Orrin Hatch, who started talking with residents and stakeholders about the bill two decades ago. Hatch was a big proponent of downsizing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, but his office is really proud of this one. It would set aside 2,543 acres for the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry National Monument; 336,467 acres for the San Rafael Swell Western Heritage and Historic Mining National Conservation Area (NCA); and 577,986 acres of wilderness. It would also give Wild and Scenic River designation to 54 miles of the Green River. It is truly a massive land deal. And when asked why Hatch supported it, a spokesperson for his office, Matt Whitlock, called it an “ideal balance between access and protection.”

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Most significant on the map are the shaded yellow areas—eight large Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) accounting for nearly 500,000 acres. Most Utah counties have been in a standoff for decades with the conservation community over WSAs, which are largely administered like wilderness with prohibitions on drilling, mining, and motorized use. That’s obviously a tough sell in Emery County. Groups like the Sierra Club and the powerful Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), on the other hand, want the state’s 900,000 WSA acres converted to full-fledged wilderness because it offers more stringent protections against mineral extraction and motorized use. And in the current political climate, Wilderness Study Areas are for the first time being threatened with legislation to strip their protections.

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https://www.outsideonline.com/2302291/emery-county-utah-monument

[mountain grammy]

1. and I completely agree with what you said there

in the first two lines of the post. Fuck these people and Orrin Hatch