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Show Examnles:. When I was working with Dick Carter, Utah TWS Rep. in Salt Lake City, in 1977-1978, on the Forest Service RARE II planning, this same Gene Day, Moab District Manager, called Dick's office to set up meetings to enlist Dick's participation when the BLM was getting its own roadless area review underway. I took these calls, passed on the message, but it was six months before Dick could or would respond. And Gene Day was ticked off. What he didn't understand is that Dick was inundated with the Forest Service planning and meetings, his own efforts to develop a roadless area constituency, and that Dick was involved in Salt Lake City BLM efforts to "define" a road and criteria, as well as the Governor's committee to develop a philosophy and policy for wilderness in the State. Gene Day had a critical need for support from the environmental constituency in the State to balance the near total local opposition from the Moab District. I made a special effort to go to the Vernal BLM District, also ticked off, to drive out across BLM lands to help decide what a road was - when so much of the land was intersected with cattlemen's truck routes; and to decide whether the unsightly disarray left from the chaining disqualified areas for wilderness study. Herds of elk didn't give a darn whether there was unsightly remnants of chaining; it was more important to me that they were there, protected, than that the area be turned into oil and gas fields. The BLM compromised - by allowing oil and gas development only on the perimeters- of roadless areas. I wrote an 11 page statement on the management policies I considered needed subsequent to this trip and a public hearing. In 1976, when I worked on the Prototype Oil Shale development article for High Country News, I was the lone environmental voice willing to speak out about the value of the wildlife resources associated with the BLM lands and the White River. BLM staffs drove me around, showed me their management efforts, explained resource values and other wise defined the Multiple Use management responsibilities they saw. But I was told by a staff person to get in on the White River Dam issue early on - before the EIS got written. In 1976 I hadn't the know how, the range of environmental citizens to contact, or the guts to do this! The power of the oil shale development forces was so pervasive, the few voices in opposition so timid - including the mayor of Vernal, that I let the BLM down - until now. |
