Typical of Americans who embrace their public lands, my wife and I frequent beautiful Utah destinations. We’re in awe of our state’s public lands and spectacular vistas, often covered with sagebrush, pinyon pines and juniper trees. However, when we encounter thousands of acres denuded of vegetation as a result of Bureau of Land Management-approved “vegetation treatment projects” we, like most, are of the mind that Utah is not better for it. The agency is now fast-tracking and ignoring both science and public input on these enormous projects.
How can such clear-cutting be allowed in the 21st century? Chaining and mass mulching of native forests should have been abandoned years ago.
With a state economy dependent on the service industry, high tech and beautiful public land vistas that draw all those good jobs, it’s backward-looking management that goes into approving such destruction.
BLM claims mastication increases cattle forage and huntable wildlife, and restores watersheds. Yet the best science shows these projects often do more harm than good. Heavy equipment pulverizes trees and plant life, destroys cryptobiotic soils, crushes cultural sites and increases invasive cheatgrass that exacerbates wildfire risk.
Utah will be better off once BLM stops appeasing special interests.
Peter Gatch, Park City