It promises to be hotter reading material than even "Jurassic Park." The pre-release hype is exceeding that of "The Firm."
In fact, when it's finally released later this year, the Dixie Resource Area draft management plan may prove a record best seller for esoteric government documents. At least it will be in Washington County."You could say interest is very, very high," said Debbie Pietrzak, manager of the Dixie Resource Area of the Bureau of Land Management. "Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't ask about it."
The much anticipated document will dictate what is and is not allowed on public lands in southwestern Utah for the next 20 years. And it will likely be the most controversial document ever produced by the BLM in Utah.
Historically, public lands in the region have been managed for livestock grazing and mining. But the new plan will likely impose tough management policies to protect a host of threatened and endangered species, including the Mojave desert tortoise; will offer added protection to wild and scenic rivers; will address the management of numerous wilderness areas; and will emphasize recreation on public lands at the expense of traditional activities such as ranching and mining.
That latter point rankles local political leaders, who say the BLM has not adequately considered local values and customs in drafting the management plan. In fact, when state lawmakers toured the area recently, they listened to a steady barrage of criticism directed at the BLM and the draft management plan - which hasn't even been released yet.
"The resource management plan is nothing more than restrictive management," said Washington County Commissioner Russ Galien. "The net effect is we'll have a tough time doing anything down here."
Rep. Met Johnson, R-New Harmony, agrees, arguing a restrictive management plan will put an end to ranching on public lands and will significantly inhibit social and economic growth in the region.
"The federal land management agencies have lost touch with the traditional uses and values that Western states depend on," he said. "There's a large difference of opinion on non-consumptive uses of these lands and traditional uses. There's a terrible schism between the perception of what multiple-use land users are using the land for and what recreationists want to use it for. The battle lines are drawn."
State lawmakers were generally sympathetic with southern Utahns who feel besieged by federal bureaucrats, and many pledged state resources to help local residents fight the BLM. But others were questioning why local BLM and wildlife officials were not invited on the tour to explain their side of the controversy. "I would at least like to have heard the other side," said Sen. Scott Howell, D-Salt Lake.
The BLM would have relished the opportunity to participate in the discussion, Pietrzak said. And so would the Division of Wildlife Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But they were not invited.
Why? "Because we were elected by people to be representatives of their needs, wishes and wants," Johnson said. "The government appoints people to manage resources, not people. The desert tortoises did not elect us, the people did. So consequently those are the needs we were most concerned about."
Johnson argued that federal bureaucrats have been generally unsympathetic to local concerns, and that inviting them to participate in the field trip would have served no practical purpose. "The most treacherous thing of resource management plan is the lack of local input and local concern. The RMP is just not sensitive to the needs of people."
Pietrzak said local concerns are being addressed in the management plan, as are concerns over wildlife, wilderness and the environment. The hard part, she says, is balancing all concerns.
"This area is truly unlike any other," Pietrzak said. "We have five geophysiographic provinces that come together here, creating different environments and ecotones, each of which contains different (plant and animal) species adapted to those areas. Some are found nowhere else in the world."
In fact, the Dixie Resource Area has 38 different species of plants and animals that are listed as threatened or endangered, or that are candidates for listing - more than any other BLM resource area in the United States.
"We want a proactive management plan that will address those species before they become threatened or endangered and we find ourselves backed up against the wall like with the desert-tortoise problem," she said.
The desert tortoise, listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species, has thwarted development around St. George. Federal law prevents public or private landowners from developing any land considered habitat for an endangered species.
That ruling has provoked considerable conflict in the fast-growing area, particularly among would-be developers who now find they can do nothing with their lands. Pietrzak hopes a proactive management of other sensitive species will prevent the same situation from occurring again.
Typically, resource area management plans are four years from conception to implementation. The Dixie plan was begun in 1987, and it could be well into 1994 before it is implemented.
"It's taken way too long," Pietrzak said, noting that the BLM in southwestern Utah has been operating under an old plan that is grossly inadequate in addressing the complex problems of the region.
Federal managers originally completed a draft Dixie Resource Area Management Plan in 1989, after which various aspects were changed. A final plan was published the following year but was rejected because it failed to consider the management of Wild and Scenic River designations, among other things.
Land managers have been redrafting the document ever since. "When you delay a plan, you wind up having to change more and more as time goes on and the rules and regulations change," Pietrzak said. "If you keep delaying, you never finish."
When the draft plan is completed, the public will have 90 days to review and comment on it before the document is submitted for final approval.