Siskiyou supervisors send letter of support for Utah land initiative

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to send a letter of support for a Utah bill attempting to address concerns about federal land ownership in that state – a topic often arising in the Western United States. House Resolution 5780, the Utah Public Lands Initiative Act, is a sweeping, approximately 250 page bill that touches on numerous topics, from grazing certainty to wilderness conservation across a large swathe of federally owned land in Utah. Introduced by Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT-1), HR 5780 is reportedly the result of months of collaboration between numerous stakeholder groups and interested parties, and has been touted as a measure to bring more local control to land use decisions. In its letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the board of supervisors states, “The Initiative is a proactive approach to managing 18 million acres within seven counties of public land throughout Utah, and outlines management priorities and provisions for Wilderness Areas, National Conservation Areas, and Watershed Management Areas, among others...more