Outgoing members of the Moab District BLM Grazing Advisory Board were recognized this month for their public service and received individual plaques at the board's latest meeting.
Gene Nodine, director of the Moab District-Bureau of Land Management, presented engraved plaques to D.L. Taylor, Boyd Marsing and Don R. Barton, whose terms on the eight-member board have expired.During the meeting Feb. 14, the board also welcomed new members and elected Butch Jensen of Price, cattle representative from the BLM's Prive River Resource Area, as council chairman. Named vice-chairman was Preston Nielson of Blanding, cattle representative from the San Juan Resource Area.
Taylor's most recent term on the Moab BLM District Multiple-Use Advisory Council also expired recently. In recognition of his service on that board, Nodine presented Taylor with a plaque during a convention of the Utah Cattlemen's Association. A native stockman of Moab, Taylor was also given an oil portrait Moab artist Page Holland did of him.
Nodine recalled at the grazing board meeting that Taylor's history with livestock dates to 1877, when his great-grandfather, Lester Taylor, is said to have been the first to introduce sheep to the area.
Taylor Flats, on the northeast slopes of the LaSal Mountains, is named after the first herdsmen to put cattle in that area. Taylor livestock have grazed there since, No-dine said.
He praised Taylor for 20 years of service on the board and his efforts to promote proper use of both public and private lands.
Nodine lauded Marsing, whose departure from the board ended a family tradition of service dating to 1935, as a serious businessman who brought the board a professional's approach. The rancher is credited with building more than 20 water developments over the past ten years, and constructing more than 30 miles of fencing on public rangelands, mostly on his own volition at his own expense.
Marsing's father, Orson, served on the original Taylor Grazing Board of the old Price Grazing District until the 1970s when Congress eliminated public lands grazing boards. Boyd Marsing was elected to represent Price River Resource Area permit-tees when the grazing boards were re-established under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.
Don Barton of Monticello, whose ancestors were members of the Hole-In-the-Rock Expedition, has served the grazing board continuously since he was elected in 1963, many years as secretary.
Nodine said Barton's dedicated service to the BLM council will be missed. A lifelong farmer and rancher, Barton is a longtime member of the Utah Cattlemen's Association, which he has served as a board director and vice-president.
"He has always served in these capacities with integrity, fairness and with a strong dedication to these responsibilities," Nodine said.