Ken Salazar says local conservation approach should be blueprint for future

Amy Joi O'Donoghue

SALT LAKE CITY — Like a conductor directing an orchestra of varied instruments, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar deftly moved from person to person in a public listening session on land-use issues Tuesday morning, whether hearing from hiking enthusiasts who urged silence from off-road-vehicle users or taking complaints from four-wheeler buffs who say accessible roads are rapidly vanishing.

Although he cut short some commentators in the first session of the Salt Lake City Great Outdoors Initiative and told others to simply ask their questions, Salazar made it clear he wants to tap local, public opinion as his blueprint for the Interior Department's management strategy.

"It is really the people who live in these places who ought to have a significant voice," Salazar told a crowd numbering several hundred.

"There is great promise that these disputes that have gone on generation after generation" can be resolved, he said.

Gretchen Siegler, with the environmental studies program at Salt Lake's Westminster College, said land use decisions need to be "science-based, not emotion based. … We need areas where there is peace and quiet."

Earlier, Jack Johnston identified himself as a 45-year four-wheeler enthusiast and said motorized access, especially for seniors, is sometimes their only access to the back country.

"If there is 'wilderness' everywhere, where are we going to go? Give us a chance to have a voice. Make it fair," he urged Salazar.

Left unaddressed at the session, however, was a direct request by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert for Salazar's agency to appeal a federal court ruling July 26 that directed the Interior Department to re-examine its decision rejecting a nuclear waste repository in Skull Valley. The ruling said the agency abused its discretion.

At a news conference after the Tuesday morning session, Salazar would only say he's "taking a close look" at the ruling.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, issued a news release later Tuesday criticizing Salazar for refusing to meet with the state's congressional delegation during his visit. Bishop said that despite Salazar's having called the visit a "listening tour," the secretary indicated he didn't have time for a meeting to discuss the federal court ruling.

In the public listening session, Salazar pointed to a trio of developments in Utah that he said underscore how diverse interests can work together to resolve historically contentious issues.

A decision issued by the Bureau of Land Management last week, for example, incorporates what he has described as an unprecedented collaboration between an oil and gas company and a wide spectrum of environmental groups.

The "Programmatic Agreement" between the Bill Barrett Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is designed to protect cultural and natural resources, and while it allows gas development to move forward, it was scaled back in deference to potential environmental impacts in the Tavaputs Plateau area.

"This can be a great example of what the conservation agenda will be for the United States in the 21st century," Salazar said.

He also pointed to a pilot project announced by his agency to help resolve claims to disputed rural roads that have had environmentalists squaring off with a variety of county officials and others who argue for shared access.

Various parties will attempt to hammer out a resolution to the dispute on so-called RS 2477 road claims in Iron County, where meetings are already under way to find agreement on claims that can be resolved without litigation.

Pointing to the passage of the Washington County Lands Bill, pushed by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, Salazar said such a "ground-up" local conservation approach is the ideal to follow.

"That is the right template for dealing with these conservation issues," Salazar said.

The crowd at Tuesday's session included representatives from a variety of backgrounds, from federal and state agencies to hikers, educators and ranchers. Commissioners from Carbon and Uintah counties complained of new federal actions severely hampering the oil and gas industry in their areas and chasing jobs away. Others pressed for more reliance on clean energy and for pristine areas to remain quiet from the noise of off-road vehicles.

An afternoon session solicited input from youth — another tenet of President Barack Obama's "America's Great Outdoor Initiative," which seeks to "reconnect" the nation's children with the outdoors.

In breakout groups, high-school students, elementary children and program administrators huddled in discussions led by employees from a variety of land management agencies.

In a group led by Loyal Clark, a Forest Service spokeswoman, she urged participants to identify hurdles that kept them from being outdoors and find ways to spend time in nature.

Participants also were asked to identify the greatest environmental challenges in their communities.

Jackson Elder, a bubbly and precocious 8-year-old, declared, "Reduce energy, recycle and reuse." Another young college student suggested community-wide implementation of "bicycle libraries."

Each of the groups was tasked with coming up with a list of recommendations that will be forwarded to the Oval Office for possible incorporation into a report derived from the listening sessions.

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Source: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700053295/Ken-Salazar-says-local-conservation-approach-should-be-blueprint-for-future.html?pg=2

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