| OCR Text |
Show -5- Teton Science School, talked with me at a Workshop and spoke about trying to raise funds for me. I don't know her and was reluctant to follow through. If you wish to see what possibilities lie in this area, I would appreciate this. My-' son Mark is graduating from Luther College, Be corah Iowa, in May and is anxious to get out to Jenny Lake. He plans to teach High School History. He wrote to Alakka to see what teaching opportunities existed there and I am suggesting that^ he see possibilities here in the southwest. He is graduating in May and a daughter is getting married in Denver in August. I do feel that I need and want to be part of t;hese events - so all this adds to my economic situation. I feel that 1 cannot continue to be such a financial drain on my husband. Two other issues I want to relate to you deal "with BLM lands. En route home from the Albuquerque Water Law Symposium, I stopped for a loo^see at canyon country around Grand Gulch which empties its water into the San Juan River. This is a Primitive Area with that protection. However, all the mesa country surrounding it has not protection other than what the new BLM regs. will provide and this is outstanding slickrock and high mesa land. I talked issues with the local Grand Gulch Ranger, with Park Service people at Natural Bridges Park and then spent last Monday,in Monticallo, south of Moabl discussing issues threateneing these outstanding canyonlands. The main threat is uranium mining, of course, and the BLM has already made one bad mistake in failing to control a major mineral exploration in one area. The agency is stiffening u|j now and Dick spent yesterday with Moabl BLM staff to get a handle on their plans. Anyway, I talked fcr 2 and 1/2 hours with the surface mining staff person. He says he and I seasonal employee are responsible for supervising over 1 million acres of BLM lands threatened with uranium mining! Unbelievable! I spent^an •additional time with the recreation staff person - learning about the massive removal of artifacts from all this area by professional artifact thieves. They scoop up the gravesites with front loaders and leed all the finds on airplanes and • fly their to Trading Posts and other sales outlets! The BLM has barely a handle en this issue! These are the Anasazi tribal remains., and the thievery takes place throughout the southeast Utah and nor southwest Colorado region. BLM has insufficient staffs to patrol and insufficient Lav? Enforcement patrol people. What can be done? Dick is working to establish some good and adequate ,LM BLM roadless area review regulations as the way to get a handle on possible wilderness area delineation. However we are discouraged at the valuable and irreplaceable land flosses - which seem already lost to oil and gas leasing in particular. I don't know what we can do - about the Book Cliffs area in norMieast Utah as of now. vou just agonize and agonize over every valuable'land and wildlife issue. The wilderness opposition here" is Statewide - and is held by conservative, John Birch 1 Society, utilization minded Utah citizens. There is as yet no conservation ethic developed among the citzenry although Dick has forced the Governor to be aware of wilderness values. |
