David DeMille

ddemille@thespectrum.com

Officials in Washington County are drawing up their own set of plans for the area’s much-contested public lands, the latest in a statewide effort to give Utah and its local governments more influence over how those lands are managed.

The Utah Legislature passed a law last year tasking every Utah county with the creation of a Resource Management Plan (RMP), with backers arguing the documents could give local governments more leverage in the sometimes-contentious negotiations with their federal counterparts.

Lawmakers have set a deadline for the plans to be completed by next summer, and while the federal agencies’ plans often come with price tags in the millions and take years to complete, county governments are working with relatively few resources — up to $50,000 in state money, along with the potential for matching funds through the Utah Permanent Community Impact Fund.

Federal agencies control about two-thirds of the lands within Utah’s borders and have their own plans covering issues like livestock grazing, mining, wilderness and outdoor recreation. But federal rules require them to at least consider the interests of local governments, and the lawmakers sponsoring the bill argued that written county-by-county plans would provide much-needed clarity.

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“In counties we find we have a great need to do planning and find out the best science to coordinate statewide, in each county and between counties,” said Ralph Okerlund, a Republican state senator and former county commissioner from Sevier County.

Federal management plans, regulated by the rules within each agency, tend to butt up against opposition from local officials worried that regulations or other restrictions might limit access or disrupt economies.

Washington County serves as a recent example, with representatives from the county and area municipalities still in the midst of a sometimes-contentious lobbying effort regarding a set of environmental documents drafted by the Bureau of Land Management.

While the agency spent six years putting the drafts together, local officials raised alarms over details within the plan, and have since been working to negotiate changes.

The new county RMP could help make local interests more clear to federal planners, said Celeste Maloy, the deputy county attorney who is writing the plan.

A preliminary set of draft proposals were released this week on the county website, and Maloy has asked publicly for locals to view the plans and chime in with their own ideas.

She said she has been actively seeking input from agencies and other entities that would have interest in the plans, including the BLM, but she is hoping for more participation from local individuals.

If the county is taking its own plans to the federal agencies and arguing on behalf of the local community, it helps to have as much involvement as possible from that community, she said.

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“The more public input we have for this plan the more legitimate it is when we use it that way,” she said.

So far only nine of what will eventually be 28 draft documents have been posted in draft form, but Maloy said others would be going up as they are finished. The nine that have been posted will also change as more input comes in, she said.

Utah has had a tumultuous relationship with federal lands managers in recent years.

The state passed a law in 2012 demanding the federal government give up about 31 million acres, or about 50 percent of the total area of the state. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert and a majority of state lawmakers have argued that Utah could better manage the lands than the federal government and that the revenues generated on those lands could help fund education and other state services.

The state’s congressional delegation is in the middle of a heated debate over a proposed Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah.

But county officials say they’re working to make this planning process a collaborative one, saying it can help both sides by making local priorities clearer to federal planners.

“We’re spending a lot of time on this. This isn’t something we use to go in and tell a federal agency, you have do it our way or the highway,” Deputy Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke said, arguing the process is genuinely meant to help represent the best interests of the local community.

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Kimberly Finch, a public affairs specialist with the BLM’s state office in Salt Lake City, said the agency hasn’t heard from every county but that some, including Washington County, have reached out to offer to work together.

“There’s a good level of coordination between Washington County and the BLM,” she said.

Jane Whalen, a board member with a local advocacy group called Conserve Southwest Utah, said she had also been contacted about the county RMP.

Thus far, the drafts are very preliminary, but Whalen said she was hoping county officials see it as a chance to do things like incorporate the principles of the “ Vision Dixie ” planning process approved by the community several years ago.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter,@SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.

Online

To read the draft versions of the Washington County Resource Management Plan documents, visit www.washco.utah.gov.