| Contacts: | Tom Alvarez, Public Affairs Specialist, (970) 244-3097 |
Secretary Salazar Appoints Dominguez-Escalante Advisory Council
Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently announced the appointment of several local residents to the new Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area (NCA) and Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Advisory Council. “This council will assist the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in collaboratively developing a Resource Management Plan (RMP) for the NCA and wilderness,” said Secretary Salazar. “I want to welcome our newly appointed council members and salute them for their commitment to public service.”
The council consists of 10 members who will serve three-year terms advising the BLM on the development of long-range management plans for the Dominguez-Escalante NCA and Dominguez Canyon Wilderness. The new advisory council members are Steve Acquafresca, Katie Steele, Tamera Minnick and Joe Neuhof from Grand Junction; Jan McCracken and Terry Kimber from Delta; William Harris, Montrose; Oscar Massey, Whitewater; Jason Beason from Paonia and Neil Wilson from Eckert.
The council’s first meeting will take place in January 2011 with scheduled monthly meetings to follow. Dates, times and location of all meetings will be posted on the BLM GJFO website at http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/nca/denca.html.
Encompassing nearly 210,000 acres of BLM administered public lands on the western slope of Colorado, the Dominguez-Escalante NCA is one of the BLM’s 16 NCAs in the west. In addition to opportunities for multiple types of recreation, the spectacular canyon scenery and dynamic desert stream systems of the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness, and important cultural resources and wildlife habitats, the Dominguez-Escalante NCA offers outstanding educational and scientific opportunities. NCAs are part of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), a unique network of special places that serve as scenic showcases for the conservation, protection, and restoration elements of BLM’s multiple use mission. These treasured landscapes make up more than 27 million of the 253 million total acres of public lands managed by the BLM in the western United States.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.