Dear HCN,
Columnist Jon Margolis
concludes that designation of the new Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument was not a “model of cooperative federalism.
Consultation with the state was non-existent, …” ” (HCN, 9/1/97).
If President Clinton had consulted with the
state before issuing his proclamation, he would have run up against
a monolithic stonewall of resistance from the congressional
delegation, the governor and the county governments in the area.
Every possible legal and legislative roadblock would have been used
to prevent the designation of the monument, and it is quite
possible this would have made the designation impossible, even
though, as Mr. Margolis states, it was
legal.
President Clinton, however, did make a
fatal mistake in his proclamation, a point Mr. Margolis missed: The
monument was put under the jurisdiction of the BLM, when it should
have been managed by the National Park Service. The Bureau of Land
Management has neither the mission, nor the expertise, nor the
needed vision to manage any public land primarily for preservation.
The BLM is devoted almost exclusively to the grazing, mining,
oil/gas and ORV interests, with little concern for wilderness,
wildlife or preservation. Under BLM jurisdiction, there is almost
no hope that the values the president cited in his proclamation
will be realized.
Conoco Inc. applied for permits
to drill on an additional five sites within their leases on
monument lands, and it has indicated in public statements it plans
to drill on all its leases (perhaps 25-30 wells). BLM’s second
environmental analysis concludes again that additional wells would
have “no significant impact,” devoting only one page to concerns
raised by the EPA. Clearly, the BLM is prepared to grant Conoco
carte blanche with respect to their plans, regardless of the clear
and devastating impacts on the values of the monument. For the BLM,
it is business as usual, notwithstanding that a national monument
is not a BLM multiple-use area where anything
goes.
The only hope for the monument is to
transfer its jurisdiction to the Park
Service.
Jack T.
Spence
Teasdale,
Utah
The writer is a professor
emeritus in chemistry and biochemistry at Utah State
University.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We can’t trust the BLM.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
