A couple of topics on the Summit County Council agenda Wednesday deal with federal lands—both in Utah and around Summit County.
The council meets at the Coalville Courthouse. Shortly before 4:00 pm, they will discuss passing on recommendations to the Bureau of Land Management about Resource Management for the Grand Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments.
County Manager Tom Fisher noted the council has long been involved and signed an amicus brief in a federal court case, opposing President Trump’s order reducing the monuments.
He said they’re following positions from the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, to preserve the cultural and historic values of the land and avoid development and extraction activity.
“The council has been very active in this discussion the whole time especially since the current administration signed the executive order to reduce the size of the monuments. Council really believes in the value of our public lands of maintaining the wilderness values that are there, maintaining the value around protecting the archeological sites and things like that. They believe that this helps our economy.”
Fisher said the council believes that tourists who visit those areas in Southern Utah will also visit Summit County.
At about 4:20 pm they will also hear from BLM representatives about some holdings here locally. One item concerns oil and gas leases on BLM land in the county.
“They are in the absolute far eastern side of the county it’s almost into Dagget county. The BLM lands straddle and the lease areas straddle the two counties. That’s what we’re talking about, there’s a few parcels up there that are being made available, just general lease for extraction.”
The second item, he said, concerns some BLM parcels in Wasatch County. Fisher didn’t have the details, but said they concern the expansion of the Deer Valley Resort.
