14 DAY TRIAL // The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced this week that it would withdraw a further 100,000 acres of land from public auction, making it the second time in a row when it proved that the first studies it had conducted, when deciding which parcels to put on auction in the first place, were wrong and hastened by political interests. Environmental organizations and the National Park Service harshly criticized the BLM for its initial decision, made public on Election Night.
Terrain in the Nine Mile Canyon and the Desolation Canyon has been removed from the lists, though the BLM says that this is just a temporary measure. Already, its former opponents saluted the move, but complained about the fact that still in excess of 270,000 acres of land situated near national parks was on the list. They insisted that the Bureau did its job thoroughly and removed the remaining parcels as well.
No later than last week, the BLM pulled tracts of land from near Utah's Arches National Park, Dinosaur National Monument and Canyonlands National Park, which were all in danger of being plagued with greenhouse gases in the next few years. Their streams were to be polluted with chemicals obtained as byproducts from the processing of crude.
Unfortunately, officials of the Bureau said that they were only removing parcels from the bottom of the canyons, but announced that the tracts that lied on the hills overlooking the natural wonders would still be sold to the highest bidder. In their defense, BLM representatives say that they would never have allowed for the workers to drill directly in the canyons, but, rather, they would have asked them to use directional drilling, to reach the fields.
The environmental group Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance says that, in some areas around Nine Mile canyon, the parcels that are to be auctioned in December are home to large game, and that exploitations in the area have to be kept to a minimum, to ensure the safety of the animals.
A further 146,339 acres are to be auctioned in Utah until the end of the year, the BLM announced, only this time for geothermal development. Environmentalists say that they have nothing against such measures, as long as nature is not harmed by pollution.