Grand Canyon Trust – Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance – The Wilderness Society – Western Watersheds Project – National Parks Conservation Association – Center for Biological Diversity – Project Eleven Hundred – Western Resource Advocates – Conservation Lands Foundation – WildEarth Guardians – Coalition to Protect America’s Parks – Sierra Club
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Draft Resource Management Plan and EIS Comments
These comments are submitted on behalf of Grand Canyon Trust, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, The Wilderness Society, Western Watersheds Project, National Parks Conservation Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Project Eleven Hundred, Western Resource Advocates, Conservation Lands Foundation, WildEarth Guardians, Coalition to Protect America’s Parks, and the Sierra Club. We appreciate the opportunity to provide input for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Resource Management Plan.
We applaud the BLM for the significant work put forth in development of the Draft Monument Management Plan and Environmental Impact statement (“DEIS” or “Draft RMP”). We believe that in many regards the preferred alternative, Alternative C, presents an appropriate management framework that adequately protects Monument objects while still providing for a wide range of discretionary uses.
However, there are areas where Alternative C fails to adequately protect Monument objects or inappropriately prioritizes conflicting uses in a unit of the National Conservation Landscape System. In these instances we have proposed elements from other alternatives to adopt, modifications to the existing alternatives, or additional alternative elements to adopt in order to properly protect Monument objects.
To assist the BLM in most efficiently and effectively responding to our comments, we have written comments specifically in response to the rows in the Alternatives Comparison matrix on pages 2-17 – 2-131 of Volume I of the Draft RMP and EIS. We refer to other places in the Draft RMP and EIS as appropriate. In addition, at the beginning of each plan category, we have provided a summary of plan components that protect Monument objects, need work, and areas where Monument objects are not protected.
Click here to read the attached comments.