Public involvement is necessary and easy
Public involvement is essential to making our democratic republic function properly. Since the time of our country’s founding, public involvement has been crucial. It may seem at times that this nation and even this county have become so large as to make public involvement meaningless, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it could be argued that your voices are needed more now than ever before.
Our county has been blessed with much beauty that draws people from across the state, nation, and world, adding to our economic strength. But we must not take it for granted, and we must be vigilant and willing to those forces that would undermine it.
My last op-ed focused on the need for Washington County citizens to be involved in the upcoming public comment period dealing with renewal of our county’s Habitat Conservation Plan. But that’s not the only matter under review that will need your input.
In addition to the Habitat Conservation Plan, two other plans are coming up for public review. BLM’s Red Cliffs National Conservation Area Resource Management Plan and the St. George Field Office Resource Management Plan will also be open for public comment.
The common thread between the plans is the proposed Northern Corridor.
Although all plans deal with other issues also, the Northern Corridor is at the heart of them all. All three are part of the National Environmental Policy Act’s “scoping” process — a “gathering process” when input from a variety of stakeholders is received and considered as the involved agencies (BLM and USFWS) work through the environmental review process. Many entities will be involved in this scoping process, but that doesn’t relegate citizen involvement to the bottom of the heap. In fact, citizen comments can be some of the most important and forceful, because you are boots on the ground in these areas we have come to cherish.
All this may sound rather daunting, but it can be as simple or complex as one chooses. Some will provide multi-page documents while others may choose something briefer. The pressure comes from the process being so abbreviated — only 30 days. It’s unfortunate that the agencies give so little time for such an important matter, but it’s what we have to work with.
When the Notice of Intent is issued, the 30-day time period begins. Perhaps even more unfortunate, or even planned, is that this process may coincide with the holiday season, when our thoughts are on family and not the public process. Please don’t let that keep you from commenting. If the agencies and our county leaders are hoping that citizens will not engage, we will give them the power to do as they please with little regard to citizen desires.
Fortunately, Conserve Southwest Utah, our county’s largest conservation organization, has worked diligently to make this process as easy as possible by providing you with scoping information and suggestions. Your scoping comment can be this simple: Copy and paste a few bullet points into a word document, and then write a couple of paragraphs about your personal relationship with land in the Red Cliffs NCA. Visit conserveswu.org/scoping for bullet points and instructions.
It’s not Thanksgiving yet, and Christmas is still a month away. Please take a minute to review CSU’s information and get your scoping comments done so you can enjoy the holidays while knowing that you did your part to protect what’s important in our county. We have much for which to be thankful. Let’s work to protect it. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
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