SALT LAKE CITY — The Bureau of Land Management is suspending the nomination of any federal public lands for oil and gas development on more than a half-million acres in portions of Emery and Wayne counties as it launches a new planning process in the San Rafael area.
The master leasing plans for 524,854 acres are intended to settle disputes over long-standing lease protests and provide certainty for energy developers in an area also prized for its rich archaeological treasures and scenic vistas such as Desolation and Labyrinth canyons.
Master leasing plans are a landscape level approach to land-use planning first initiated in the nation in the Moab area as part of oil and gas leasing reforms announced six years ago. The BLM plans to release its final environmental analysis for the Moab leasing area later this summer.
BLM officials say the plans will serve as a roadmap for orderly gas and oil development while still providing protection for resources in the area.
"The (master leasing plans) will help ensure that the energy resources found in the San Rafael Desert are developed in the right places and in the right ways," said Jenna Whitlock, the BLM's acting state director. "Throughout the (planning) process, we invite all interested stakeholders to help identify the best ways to achieve those objectives."
The BLM is holding a pair of public meetings to kick-start the process: June 15 in Green River at the John Wesley Powell River History Museum, and June 16 at the Museum of the San Rafael in Castle Dale. Both meetings will be from 6-8 p.m.
The San Rafael Desert, northwest of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, includes the Dirty Devil-Robbers Roost canyon system that is prized for rafting, canyoneering and hunting. National Park Service officials say the region is rich in prehistoric archaeological sites with studies that have been done that suggest there may be as many as 24 sites per square mile.
Conservationists and other groups praised the BLM for its initiation of the reforms.
"This area is known to contain an unparalleled record of the very first Utahns such as Ice Age hunters who followed the movements of mammoths and mastodons more than 11,000 years ago, and of the Archaic hunters and gatherers who came after, leaving their artistic imprints on the canyon walls and alcoves as a ghostly reminder of 8,000 years of human history," said Jerry Spangler, a Utah archaeologist. "Utah BLM is doing right by our history, stakeholders, tribes and the energy industry to ensure a smart and responsible approach to oil and gas development occurs in the area.”
Andy Blair, the Rocky Mountain assistant with the National Outdoor Leadership School, said students each year run the Green River through Desolation and Gray canyons and explore the canyon country.
"The San Rafael Desert provides unmatched opportunities to explore amazing red rock canyons and for our students to build life skills experiencing amazing backcountry," Blair said. "We are pleased to see the Utah BLM take a close look at how development occurs to protect the treasured lands and recreation opportunities in the San Rafael Desert.”
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