When over 250,000 acres of central Utah’s public
lands burned in last summer’s wildfires, the Bureau of Land
Management began its routine land-clearing procedure: chaining. But
soon after the BLM tractors started up this spring, dragging a
heavy chain between two vehicles to uproot dead trees and create a
new seed bed of churned-up earth, a federal court order cut the
motor on the rehabilitation plan.
Five Southern
Paiute bands convinced Judge Tena Campbell that there was more at
stake than tree stumps. To protect 10,000-year-old American Indian
artifacts and archaeological sites, Campbell halted the chaining
pending further archaeological research. That means a postponement
of the project for at least a year.
Environmental groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance, joined the Paiutes in their fight against chaining. They
said the BLM’s aim was the creation of grazing lands, and that the
planned use of non-native grass seeds would transform a diverse
landscape into a monoculture.
BLM staffer Dave
Henderson disagrees. Over such a vast acreage, he says, chaining
and follow-up seeding is the only way to stabilize soils and
prevent the spread of noxious weeds. “One of the most distressing
things I’ve heard in this whole thing is: “Let Mother Nature take
care of it,” “””says Henderson. “That’s absolutely foolish.”
” Emily
Miller
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Utah Paiutes put the brakes on chaining.
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