Northern corridor plans slighted in BLM’s draft area management plans

ST. GEORGE – A draft management plan issued by the Bureau of Land Management-Utah for the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area has county officials frustrated and at odds with conservationists over a proposed northern transportation corridor through desert tortoise habitat.

Route proposed for the northern corridor by the Dixie Metropolitan Planning Organization | Image Courtesy Dixie MPO, St. George News
Route proposed for the northern corridor by the Dixie Metropolitan Planning Organization | Image Courtesy Dixie MPO, St. George News | Click image to enlarge

The regional transportation authority for Washington County, Dixie Metropolitan Planning Organization, has proposed a northern corridor that would run through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area from Interstate 15 at Washington Parkway to Red Hills Parkway east of its new intersection with state Route 18 (above Bluff Street).

County officials say they have been planning for the northern corridor for decades, but the BLM’s recently released draft management plan states a much higher impact on the Red Cliffs conservation area than MPO planners believe is accurate.

“The resource management plan actually takes three MPO documents and severely misquotes them and then makes false assumptions based on those misquotes,” Dixie MPO Director Myron Lee said. “They’re suggesting in that resource management plan that the northern corridor would impact 6,300 acres, and in fact it would only impact 50 acres of the RMP area and 150 acres total of the HCP (Habitat Conservation Plan area).”

Lee said the 150-acre impact would only occur if the road right-of-way were 300 feet wide.

“And we probably could fit it into 150 (feet),” he said. “It’s making a false assumption that we said one thing, and it’s just not accurate.”

The RMP makes a strong case for not having a northern corridor – based on false assumptions and misinterpretations of facts, Lee said. The RMP shows six proposed routes, only one of which would be viable.

It’s very discouraging because these kind of documents have a long shelf life,” Lee said. “If we can’t get them to fix that and correct it then it’ll end up having to go to court; and I don’t think any of us would like to see that.”

The northern transportation route could be built so that tortoises could cross it safely in several places, Lee said, and there are other ways the project could help the tortoises and minimize the impact; for example, funding from the project could provide property for a satellite preserve that could be used to quarantine sick tortoises; and another project could improve water resources in the reserve.

Another Dixie MPO proposal would reroute and then reclaim the southern part of Cottonwood Road. The road runs north from St. George, bisecting the reserve, and reclaiming it would be a benefit to tortoise habitat. The northern part of the road could be rerouted to connect in with State Route 18 near Winchester Hills, Lee said.

Those are just three of 20 possibilities the Dixie MPO has proposed with funding from the road project, Lee said, money that would not otherwise be available to wildlife managers.

Opposition 

Local conservation advocacy group Citizens for Dixie’s Future opposes any new transportation route through the Red Cliffs Reserve.

“There are a lot of reasons it’s a bad idea, but the primary one is, this is supposed to be protected land,” Susan Crook said. Crook is the Public Lands Conservation Program Manager for Citizens for Dixie’s Future.

The proposed northern corridor would be detrimental to all the values the reserve was created to protect, Crook said, which include conserving views, scenery, habitat, recreation, scientific and cultural resources.

“We are for protecting the Red Cliffs National Conservation area and for preserving the habitat for the tortoise and balancing the use to the extent possible for recreation,” Crook said. “But, again, that’s the reason we have a conservation area and a reserve is to protect the habitat.”

The group believes building the northern corridor would cause harm to the desert tortoise habitat, and that mitigation is not possible. If the project goes forward, Crook said, the construction would cause major destruction of habitat, tortoise deaths, noise and dust.

“The mitigation for habitat loss was developing elsewhere (in the county) and setting aside the reserve,” Crook said. “How can you mitigate what has already been set aside for mitigation?”

The Habitat Conservation Plan, which was finalized in 1996, did not include any plans for a northern corridor, Crook said.

“There was no highway in that plan,” Crook said. “There was never intended to be a highway in that (plan).”

“Let’s live up to obligations that were made and that the county was a signatory to in the first place when the habitat conservation plan was created.”

Crook believes traffic engineers and transportation planners could be more creative in trying to solve transportation challenges in Southern Utah.

“If the reasons that, that road was proposed are still valid,” Crook said, “then let’s look at how those challenges could be met with a more creative approach to transportation.”

Act of Congress?

County officials are frustrated, including Washington County Commissioner Victor Iverson, who sees the northern corridor as a critical piece of the county transportation plan.

“We feel like the BLM really kind of side-stepped their responsibility in putting forward a resource management plan that doesn’t address transportation in it,” Iverson said. The northern corridor had been planned since the early 1990’s, Iverson said.

We appreciate and understand that this is a difficult decision as far as the BLM, the local office, dealing with it,” Iverson said. “But we feel that they’ve been given the direction by the Washington County Lands Bill that was back in 2009, to give us a viable option for the northern corridor, and by not putting it into their resource management plan they’ve really kind of sidestepped the issue.”

To understand the northern corridor, you have to understand the lands bill process. One of the things the county really fought for and thought they had worked out is the guarantee of a northern corridor through the reserve, Iverson said.

Officials realize the route goes through a sensitive area, he said, but feel they can mitigate that and actually make the habitat better.

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 was a massive undertaking meant to resolve conflicts between wilderness and lands use, in particular, Iverson said, those points of conflict regarding wilderness and federal land use within Washington county.

The Act created the county’s two national conservation areas, Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, which encompasses the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, and the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area.

The 78,000 acre Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area was a compromise, County Commissioner Alan Gardner said, because environmental groups wanted the area to be wilderness while the BLM wanted to manage it for the desert tortoise.

We gave up all the roads in the Beaver Dam NCA, except some routes that were specifically identified as open,” County Administrator Dean Cox said. “Everything else was closed.”

To the BLM, the northern corridor is very controversial, Iverson said, but county officials feel they were promised the corridor.

“We feel like Congress gave instructions to give us a northern corridor route,” Iverson said.

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 directs the Secretary of Interior to identify a northern corridor. Section 1977 of the Washington County Comprehensive Travel and Transportation Management Plan states:

 In developing the travel management plan, the Secretary shall … in consultation with the appropriate Federal agencies, State, tribal and local governmental entities (including the County and St. George City, Utah), and the public, identify 1 or more alternatives for a northern transportation route in the County;

“Now, the county worked so hard. We started out with 60,000 acres of designated wilderness and ended up with 130,000 acres,” Iverson said. “We gave up a reservoir site out on the Beaver Dam, (now) we have these national conservation areas.” 

Sen. Orrin Hatch proposed a bill in the U.S. Senate July 15 that is intended to clarify the matter. S. 1783 would amend the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 in Washington County.

The bill reads:

To amend the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 to clarify a provision relating to the designation of a northern transportation route in Washington County, Utah.

1.  Washington county comprehensive travel and transportation plan

Section 1977(b)(2) of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–11; 123 Stat. 1089) is amended by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting the following:

(A)  ensure that the travel management plan —

(i)  designates a northern transportation route in the County that follows the route depicted on the map entitled Washington Parkway; and
(ii)  provides that the designation and construction of the route is not subject to additional restrictions or requirements from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service;

According to Govtrack.us, the bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for consideration before it will come to the Senate floor for consideration.

Hatch said in an email to St. George News:

I proposed the Comprehensive Washington County Travel Management Plan because the BLM has not yet complied with a 2009 mandate requiring development of a northern transportation route. My provision could not be included in the Senate’s highway bill, where I originally proposed it, so I will continue to work with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to help address the needs of Washington County on this matter.

County officials are disappointed the 2009 Land Management Act did not resolve the transportation corridor and other issues.

Iverson said: “We were praised nationwide; everybody was, ‘Oh, you know, Washington County is the new model of solving problems.’ All we wanted was a road to get our people across town, you know, we’re kind of feeling shafted on it.”

Cox said: “So, all of this work that we did, and the compromise we thought we achieved … has gone away. We thought it was a heck of a process, and everybody felt really, really good about it. But it didn’t bring the resolution that we all hoped that it would.”

Iverson said he feels Congress’s intent was for the county to have a northern corridor.

“It has been very much a part of the overall travel master plan for years,” Iverson said, adding that Hatch’s legislation is to give clarity to what Congress has already passed.

Iverson said he believes that if the northern route is not built, there will be traffic problems within 10-15 years.

“We’re (already) starting to see the stress on our transportation system in certain areas,” he said.

There will be a great amount of stress on St. George Boulevard without the northern corridor, Iverson said, as people try to make it across town from east and west.

As far as preservation of the tortoise is concerned, Iverson said there is disagreement between different scientists and biologists. The county has already done a study which concluded that the northern corridor could be put in with no impact and in fact actually enhance habitat for the tortoise.

“There will be opposition to it,” he said, “but there’ll also be a lot of opposition if we have a complete failure of our transportation system on the Boulevard.”

When people have to wait through four or five lights to get down St. George Boulevard, they won’t understand why, he said.

The BLM’s draft resource management plans greatly exaggerate the impact of a northern corridor, Iverson said, putting the estimate at 6,350 acres impacted, while county officials estimate the impact to be under 200 acres; and, there are already existing utility corridors in the reserve.

Plan alternatives – corridor or no corridor? 

Of the alternatives, which are too extensive to summarize in this report, the BLM’s preferred option is Alternative B,  which the draft states “balances resource protection with compatible public uses.” Alternative B does not include any provision for a northern corridor.

Alternative B would designate four new areas of critical environmental concern, or ACECs, and retain eight existing ACECs. It would specify special management for the 87,000-acre Bull Valley Mountains Multi-Species Management Area, to protect crucial habitat and migration corridors for mule deer, other wildlife species and diverse predators in northwestern Washington County. 

Alternative D, the only alternative to mention a northern corridor, would designate a 6,350-acre utility and transportation corridor. The corridor would allow for location of new utilities through the national conservation area and for the development of Washington County’s proposed northern transportation route highway.

The stated need for the northern transportation route is to reduce projected traffic pressure on existing roads in the greater St. George metropolitan area. According to the Washington Parkway Cost Benefit Study, the highway would reduce traffic delays, reduce accidents, improve air quality and stimulate economic growth.

However, the management plan states that the cost/benefit ratios in the study were based on population projections released in 2008 by the Utah Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, and those estimates were revised downward considerably when that office released new projections in 2012.

An in-depth description of all four alternatives is beyond the scope of this report, however the draft resource management plans are available here.

BLM draft management plans

The Bureau of Land Management Utah St. George Field Office is accepting public comments on a draft environmental impact statement, analyzing two draft resource management plans and a draft amendment to the current St. George Field Office Resource Management Plan.

The draft resource management plans can be reviewed here. The draft impact statements have four proposed alternatives, with different levels of changes to management of the areas, which include different levels of protection.

Public open houses are being held this week in St George, Hurricane and Salt Lake City in which the public may see the BLM’s plans, ask questions and make comments. Comments may also be submitted by mail or email through Oct. 15.

For details on open houses and comment period: What to expect at BLM’s open house about Red Cliffs, Beaver Dam Wash management plans

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20 Comments

  • KarenS August 31, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    This is a well-written article, kudos to the author. It was written impartially but it is clear that the local government entities have a weak case for the Northern Corridor, very much like the fiasco of the would-be Lake Powell Pipeline. I have been attending the Transportation Expos for many years and it has become abundantly clear that a Northern Corridor is not warranted.

    • Paul Bottino September 1, 2015 at 7:26 pm

      Who thinks up all these grandiose schemes like a pipeline, and this northern corridor.
      Probably developers who see a lot of profit from these kinds of things. We don’t need either of them. There is not that much traffic on the Red Hills Parkway, so why build another road further out.

  • wilbur September 1, 2015 at 7:58 am

    Developers salivating at prospects for getting a road up there; many “view lots” to sell.

  • native born new mexican September 1, 2015 at 8:09 am

    Typical BLM garbage. Let the state control the lands and get the feds out. problem solved.

    • fun bag September 1, 2015 at 12:05 pm

      yea NM, just like the new tar sands mine. Let the state do it, durrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Let the state handle the pligs–that worked well too, huh? u need to grow up!

  • sagemoon September 1, 2015 at 8:39 am

    Very thorough article. Thank you, Julie.

  • fun bag September 1, 2015 at 12:47 pm

    THIS TURTLE DON’T EVEN EXIST! IT’S A FICTIONAL THING THAT WAS MADE UP SO THAT THE LIBERAL ELITISTS CAN ADVANCE THE AGENDA 21 BY FORCE. JUST ASK NM AND BRIAN. THEY BOTH AGREE WITH ME!

    • beacon September 1, 2015 at 4:22 pm

      Glad two people do! Read and learn. Don’t just regurgitate what you’re being told.

  • Dexter September 1, 2015 at 3:07 pm

    Is that you ABBY.?

  • beacon September 1, 2015 at 4:20 pm

    Interested citizens should go to Chapter 2-Alternatives of the BLM’s Draft Resource Management Plans and look at Map 2-46, Rights of Way Exclusion Areas & Designated Utility and Transportation Corridor – Red Cliffs NCA – Alternative D. The map clearly shows 4 (four!) road options. BLM has not “side stepped” their responsibility as Commissioner Iverson, Myron Lee and others attest. They have just not handed the preferred route to DixieMPO, commissioners and others carte blanche. Should have fought harder for it in the 90s, fellas. But, I guess it was easier to get the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) in place so everyone could develop their properties outside the Reserve/NCA to their heart’s content and now come back whining. What a sorry state of affairs.

    • sagemoon September 2, 2015 at 9:08 am

      Call me crazy, but that long report was interesting. I think you are right.

      I moved here because I liked all the open space. I want to see it preserved.

  • Dexter September 1, 2015 at 9:29 pm

    It’s a perfect place to put up like 6 or 7 Maveriks and 4 or 5 McDonalds and 12 more Mexican restaurants and 10 more Chinese restaurants 5 more auto dealerships and a golf course.

    • Simone September 2, 2015 at 10:30 am

      …..and 4 Mormon “church” buildings, 3 temples, 2 Institutes of Religion and a partridge in a pear tree.

  • wilbur September 2, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    Don’t forget the tract of “view” homes inside this “connector”. They should be pricey, but nice. Just in time for the pipeline to water them.

  • fun bag September 2, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    awwwww, poor little momo’s don’t get to build a road over the wittle turtle habitat. mormon republicans shedding so many tears WAH WAH WAH. LETS GET OUT THE CRYING TOWELS. wahawahahwah wah boo hoo

  • Dexter September 2, 2015 at 8:21 pm

    That’s not very nice ABBY

  • Dexter September 3, 2015 at 9:44 am

    Hey where’s the village idiot and his stupid comments.?

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