Final comments on BLM RMP submitted

While much has been said on the Bureau of Land Management's Resource Management Plan (RMP) draft for the Rock Springs Field Office over the past five months, the final official comments were made this week. With the deadline for the public comment period ending on Wednesday, many organizations and individuals got their last comments in this week, including Sweetwater County and the governor's task force.

The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners approved the final comments on behalf of the county during Tuesday's meeting. Land Use Director Eric Bingham, who has worked with Chief Civil Deputy and Prosecuting Attorney John DeLeon and Coalition of Local Governments Attorney Danielle Bettencourt to put the comments together for the county, gave the commissioners one final update during the meeting. Bingham again highlighted the main points made in the letter, and explained some of the attachments that provide specific support and background in different areas of concern and that demonstrate the ways the BLM failed to follow the correct processes. The attachments include scientific reports, emails and letters between the BLM and cooperators, reports from other similar processes, a Sweetwater County consistency analysis table, the Sweetwater Economic Industrial Plan, and more.

Bingham noted that the final approved letter and comments with attachments from the county exceed the length of the original RMP draft.

"Total pages are 1,783 from the county. So I guess, BLM, thank you for your 1,300 page document, we raise you 1,783," Bingham said with a laugh.

Chairman Keaton West said the original document was so large it seemed like an impossible task, and he found some satisfaction in raising the page count "just because of the importance behind it and the amount of work that was put in."

The final comments were both submitted digitally and printed out as a hard copy for the BLM.

The commissioners also approved a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on behalf of the county, asking the BLM to provide information on topics including areas of ACEC (Areas of Critical Environmental Concern) designations and any written time limits or extensions in the process.

The commissioners also expressed their gratitude to Bingham, DeLeon, and Bettencourt for all the work they put in, both on behalf of the county and through helping with the governor's task force.

Chairman West and Commissioner Taylor Jones were members of the task force put together by Governor Mark Gordon to comment on the RMP, with West representing local government and Jones acting as the motorized access representative. Both commissioners gave more information about the task force process in their comments during the commission meeting.

"It was a 45-day process that spanned over three holidays and several weekends of homework and studying," Chairman West said of the task force. "Overall I think it was a productive effort."

"The task force agreed on approximately 100 management actions and a variety of interest statements and agreements," Commissioner Jones explained.

Both West and Jones expressed some frustrations with the way the task force worked. West pointed out that lack of time to go over everything was the common denominator in everyone responding to the RMP, and Jones noted that the task force process also led to everything being done "at a snail's pace."

"I'd say we were probably about 50% effective," Jones said. "I think we could have accomplished twice as much given a different process."

The voting process for the task force was also something both West and Jones were opposed to and frustrated by, as it required full consensus for issues to be included. West said he felt like the system wasn't good governance since it allowed minority interests to take control and didn't accurately reflect or include the position of the majority of the task force on some issues.

While Governor Gordon will receive all the information the task force discussed, the final report released to the BLM and the public only includes the topics that reached full consensus among the members.

According to the final task force report, major consensus recommendations include conserving landscapes around Greater Little Mountain; acknowledging the "national and local significance of the trona mining industry by protecting access to anddevelopment of the Known Sodium Leasing Area"; bringing "reasonable management approaches to the 'checkerboard' area of the field office that recognize the importance of meeting access needs associated with use of non-BLM lands, managing for wildlife migration, and protecting the visual horizon"; supporting "a slate of management actions that will ensure continued motorized use in the field office"; "recognizing the historical and current importance of livestock in the region, support for management actions that ensure continued grazing, predator management, and invasive species control"; and "protecting key cultural features and natural resources using the Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) management tool in a few limited areas of the field office."

West explained that Governor Mark Gordon and BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning were present for the last full-day meeting of the task force.

"The takeaway message was that the final Resource Management Plan will be released before the end of the year," West said. "That came straight from Director Stone-Manning, so I'll let you connect the dots on the reasoning behind that promise."

"Director Stone-Manning said the BLM will take our comments and actions seriously and use the report in working on the final RMP," Jones added. "She said they will come up with a completely different alternative. So all the right things were said to us, and now we wait and see if they follow through."

"The process has been long and arduous but I'm very impressed with both the effort put forth and the comments that have been prepared," Commissioner Robb Slaughter said regarding the responses to the RMP in general. "Hopefully the BLM will seriously consider the views that have been carefully constructed to implement a plan that will be beneficial to all."