COALITION TO PRESERVE ROCK ART
Jon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780
435-627-1086 preserverockart@gmail.com
The Coalition Progress Report February 10, 2008
The Coalition to Preserve Rock Art (CPRA) is now, I believe, making some progress. The first key is to get the word out of our interest. Then we need to follow through with more information supporting the Awareness concept and more material to aid in the Education area.
We then need to couple this with Actions or Implementation to see some progress toward achieving the objectives.
Specifically:
We continue to support URARA and other organizations interested in Preservation by responding to the BLM Resource Management Plans in Utah. So far we have responded on Moab, Kanab, Richfield, Monticello, Price, and Vernal. We should all give a lot of credit to URARA for their detailed analysis and thoughtful responses to the BLM. That effort is headed by Troy Scotter. If the BLM reads and listens, URARA and their associated organizations should have an impact.
BLM has announced the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the West Tavaputs Plateau Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. This could mean the drilling of up to 807 new natural gas wells in the Nine-Mile Canyon area. The Coalition will respond to the EIS (due May 1, 2008) and will probably attend at least one Public Information Open House in the Price area if the BLM holds them as indicated. We urge all of our members to be active in responding to this EIS. Nine-Mile Canyon is a very important series of sites.
John Macumber arranged an on-site meeting with the St. George Park Planning Manager at Telegraph Hill, a site that we have watched for over a year now. We have really struggled to come up with a plan to Protect the Rock Art from residential development. There should be several future discussions and we hope that the City will take an active position with the developers on a solution such as signage and designated trails on the hillside – it may not be possible to save the Rock Art on horizontal surfaces at the top but the city will be checking that out. John has put us in touch with the right people, now we have to work the issues as the City allows us to. We were fortunate to have Pam and Quent Baker from Moab join us at the meeting and they offered some valuable ideas.
The City of St. George is also evaluating the Temple Quarry Trail where the Trail comes close to a couple of boulders with Rock Art. This area is presently BLM property, but the City will probably ask for the Coalition’s help in generating an acceptable RMP for the area and perhaps the City will have a very influential role in how the area is managed. We have indicated that we are willing to help out.
Dixie Archaeology Society (DAS) is staying in touch with the BLM on Gunlock Wellsite #4. It’s highly probable that the BLM will not take any action (my opinion), but will they allow DAS and CPRA to do something to prevent ATV and foot traffic on the site? Only time will tell.
DAS now plans the first road cleanup project in March of 2008. We were given a 2-mile section of St. George roadway to clean up 3 times a year. We accepted this project to get name recognition and to do something good for the community. St. George, in its own way, took it upon themselves to change the name on the sign to St. George Archaeology Society from Dixie Archaeology Society - that must be the political push at the moment. Not exactly the name recognition we sought, but….
There is probably more to report (for instance we have offered to help URARA distribute Rock Art Etiquette Brochures if they initiate that project), but let’s save those topics for next month or so.
The Coalition is researching what is needed to become a recognized non-profit organization and then a 501(c)3 organization. We feel that will be needed to achieve our objectives. Membership is progressing. We will be making a presentation on March 11 that will introduce us to many new potential members and will probably be making short comments in front of supportive groups soon that should also add to membership.
So we are moving ahead. Never as fast as we want, but I think progress is upon us and actual accomplishments are just around the corner.
Jon Gum
Jon Gum 1234 West Red Butte Washington, UT 84780
435-627-1086 preserverockart@gmail.com
The Coalition Progress Report February 10, 2008
The Coalition to Preserve Rock Art (CPRA) is now, I believe, making some progress. The first key is to get the word out of our interest. Then we need to follow through with more information supporting the Awareness concept and more material to aid in the Education area.
We then need to couple this with Actions or Implementation to see some progress toward achieving the objectives.
Specifically:
We continue to support URARA and other organizations interested in Preservation by responding to the BLM Resource Management Plans in Utah. So far we have responded on Moab, Kanab, Richfield, Monticello, Price, and Vernal. We should all give a lot of credit to URARA for their detailed analysis and thoughtful responses to the BLM. That effort is headed by Troy Scotter. If the BLM reads and listens, URARA and their associated organizations should have an impact.
BLM has announced the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the West Tavaputs Plateau Natural Gas Full Field Development Plan. This could mean the drilling of up to 807 new natural gas wells in the Nine-Mile Canyon area. The Coalition will respond to the EIS (due May 1, 2008) and will probably attend at least one Public Information Open House in the Price area if the BLM holds them as indicated. We urge all of our members to be active in responding to this EIS. Nine-Mile Canyon is a very important series of sites.
John Macumber arranged an on-site meeting with the St. George Park Planning Manager at Telegraph Hill, a site that we have watched for over a year now. We have really struggled to come up with a plan to Protect the Rock Art from residential development. There should be several future discussions and we hope that the City will take an active position with the developers on a solution such as signage and designated trails on the hillside – it may not be possible to save the Rock Art on horizontal surfaces at the top but the city will be checking that out. John has put us in touch with the right people, now we have to work the issues as the City allows us to. We were fortunate to have Pam and Quent Baker from Moab join us at the meeting and they offered some valuable ideas.
The City of St. George is also evaluating the Temple Quarry Trail where the Trail comes close to a couple of boulders with Rock Art. This area is presently BLM property, but the City will probably ask for the Coalition’s help in generating an acceptable RMP for the area and perhaps the City will have a very influential role in how the area is managed. We have indicated that we are willing to help out.
Dixie Archaeology Society (DAS) is staying in touch with the BLM on Gunlock Wellsite #4. It’s highly probable that the BLM will not take any action (my opinion), but will they allow DAS and CPRA to do something to prevent ATV and foot traffic on the site? Only time will tell.
DAS now plans the first road cleanup project in March of 2008. We were given a 2-mile section of St. George roadway to clean up 3 times a year. We accepted this project to get name recognition and to do something good for the community. St. George, in its own way, took it upon themselves to change the name on the sign to St. George Archaeology Society from Dixie Archaeology Society - that must be the political push at the moment. Not exactly the name recognition we sought, but….
There is probably more to report (for instance we have offered to help URARA distribute Rock Art Etiquette Brochures if they initiate that project), but let’s save those topics for next month or so.
The Coalition is researching what is needed to become a recognized non-profit organization and then a 501(c)3 organization. We feel that will be needed to achieve our objectives. Membership is progressing. We will be making a presentation on March 11 that will introduce us to many new potential members and will probably be making short comments in front of supportive groups soon that should also add to membership.
So we are moving ahead. Never as fast as we want, but I think progress is upon us and actual accomplishments are just around the corner.
Jon Gum
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