{"id":105957,"date":"2016-03-31T00:10:16","date_gmt":"2016-03-31T06:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/environmental-groups-encourage-blm-to-involve-public-in-planning\/"},"modified":"2016-03-31T00:10:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-31T06:10:16","slug":"environmental-groups-encourage-blm-to-involve-public-in-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/environmental-groups-encourage-blm-to-involve-public-in-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental groups encourage BLM to involve public in planning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The economic impact of the national parks surrounding the Moab, Utah, were cited Thursday as a reason the Bureau of Land Management should involve the public more in its land management.<\/span>Katie Chicklinski-Cahill\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The effort, known as the Planning 2.0 rule, seeks to modernize BLM\u2019s planning by increasing public participation during the creation of resource management plans and by making \u201crevisions to clarify existing text and use plain language\u201d so the public has a better sense of what regulations would accomplish.<\/p>\n

Nada Culver, director of the BLM Action Center for the Wilderness Society and one of the participants of the conference call, said the planning rule was an effort by the agency toward greater transparency. But she said the rule needed to further highlight the importance of using master leasing plans, especially in Western states.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaster leasing plans, like this overall Planning 2.0 vision, are an important way to develop a shared vision for landscapes that\u2019s based on up-to-date information and public input,\u201d Culver said. \u201cAnd this type of transparency and accuracy and engagement, we feel, builds a better process and gives access and input to a wide range of people who care about our public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Master leasing plans were introduced in 2010 to limit the impact of oil and natural gas drilling on surrounding recreational areas.<\/p>\n

The participants on the call said the MLP process allowed local communities to have a larger say in the management of public lands, especially areas economically dependent on tourism and outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n

Nick Lund, senior manager of the landscape conservation program at the National Parks Conservation Association, said MLPs were especially critical to the preservation of natural parks and surrounding communities across the West.<\/p>\n

He cited data from the National Park Service which showed that about 1.8 million tourists visited national parks surrounding Moab, Utah, spending about $177 million that supports about 4,000 local jobs. He said economies dependent on parks would be impacted by oil and natural gas drilling near the park boundaries, potentially impacting the visitor experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are economies that are important and deserve the respect of an MLP,\u201d Lund said. \u201cLong-term plans like these create certainty for local communities that depend on park visitation, and the plans provide opportunities for businesses and outdoor recreation that depend on these lands and the visitors to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference call was held in advance of a BLM-sponsored public meeting Friday in Denver on the proposed planning rule.<\/p>\n

egraham@durangoherald.com<\/a>. Edward Graham is a student at American University in Washington, D.C., and an intern for The Durango Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

economic impact of the national parks surrounding the Moab, Utah, were cited Thursday as a reason the Bureau of Land Management should involve the public more in its land management.Katie Chicklinski-Cahill\/Durango Herald file photo The effort, known as the Planning 2.0 rule, seeks to modernize BLM\u2019s planning by increasing public participation during the creation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[738,13,194,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-105957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-environmental-issue","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-land-resources","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105957"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=105957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}