Storm clouds roll in on a roadless area in the Rio Grand National Forest photo © SLVEC

Getting involved with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) planning process is your chance to have a say in how our public lands will be managed for the next 15 years.  This plan will have major impacts on hunters, anglers, hikers, bikers, OHVers, rafters, and recreationists of all stripes. This plan will also determine oil and gas projects as well as coal mining and other commercial uses of our public land, both of which will affect air and water quality as well as growth and traffic issues.

This Resource Management Plan (RMP) dictates the future uses of 1.2 million acres of public land and minerals beneath the surface of BLM lands within Mesa, Garfield, Montrose, and Delta counties (see map for the area of the GJRMP). Currently the public lands within this area are managed by the last RMP, completed in 1987. This process, although lengthy, provides the public the rare chance to decide how are public lands are managed.

As a part of the Resource Management Plan revision process, the BLM is undergoing a Travel Management Plan (TMP) for the Grand Junction resource area, and they are asking for your help. TMP provides us with the unique opportunity to ensure that the critical plant and animal habitats and unique quiet recreation landscapes of special places like Little Book Cliffs, Bangs Canyon, Sewemup Mesa, The Palisade, and Unaweep Canyon, are respected, protected, and maintained over the next 20 years. 

We must ensure fair and balanced recreation opportunities at the upcoming BLM Travel Management Plan meetings on the West Slope. The agency will present their current inventory, and provide the public with the opportunity to ask questions and make comments regarding roads and trails on public lands. 

The BLM will continue to gather input from the public during a second 30-day comment period from July 20 to August 21, 2009. This period will focus on gathering the public’s desired uses and management recommendations for the trails in routes the area.

Please review our suggested talking points, and submit your comment to the BLM by August 21st.

Suggested Talking Points
Reduce high route densities in the following areas:  Ask for specific reductions, say of 50% - 75%, in miles per square mile.

• Gateway Zones 7 and 4 (Calamity, Blue, Tenderfoot, Blue, Outlaw Mesas etc)
• Managing OHV travel so it remains responsible, on route, and doesn't overy impact sensitve species, terrain, and soils.
• North Desert/Fruita area - Drastically cut back motorized use in the North Desert area to protect prairie dogs and burrowing owls. Most of the burrowing owls in the GJFO are in the Grand Junction and Fruita areas. Those who are knowledgeable can draw boundaries around the areas on the route maps where reductions are most needed.
• Archeological concentration areas such as: Cactus Park, Nine Mile Hill, the Hunting Grounds, Milbern Bench
• User-created routes branching off top of John Brown road 
• Blue Mesa where fragmentation of sage brush habitat (for sage thrashers, sage sparrows, Brewers Sparrows)  is a concern.
• Wildlife migration corridors

Close motorized routes in the following areas:

• Granite Creek Kings Canyon and Maverick Canyon
• Riparian areas including the Gateway Potential Conservation Area, North Fork, Blue Creek, Unaweep, and West Creek.  
• Wildlife winter and spring habitat in Calamity, Outlaw and Blue Mesas, also seasonal closures in fawning and calving grounds

Dispersed camping:

• Discontinue driving off route anywhere to camp or for game retrieval. Allow pulling off only in places that have been officially designated.

Shed Antlering:

• Regulate/cut back/ban shed antlering on Bull Hill, Maverick, Pine Mountain, Tenderfoot to halt disturbance to the land and to spring wildlife

Other:

• Do not designate more miles of trails than the BLM can enforce. 
• Set back routes and camping areas from canyon rims to protect raptor nesting and quiet soundscapes and scenery
• Approve trails conditionally on user-compliance. Set users expectations that trails that lead to problems will be closed.
• Ensure that oil and gas development does not negatively impact our wildlife, air, water and general public health.
• The revised management plan should also set aside lands that have potential for developing solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources.

Once again, from July 20 to August 21, 2009 you'll have the unique opportunity to submit your comments about how you'd like to travel managed on our public lands.

For more information or learn how you can get involved as a trail monitoring volunteer, contact Jason at (970) 243-0002 or jason@cecenviro.org.