Carly Ferro, carly.ferro@sierraclub.org
Salt Lake City, UT - Today, the Bureau of Land Management sold off over 15,000 acres of public land in Utah and Idaho to dirty fuels interests. Included in the sale were two parcels totaling over 3,000 acres within ten miles of Capitol Reef National Park, which sold for the minimum bid of $2 an acre.
Capitol Reef National Park is one of four of Utah’s five National Parks originally set aside as a national monument. In 2014, the gateway communities near the park experienced visitor spending over $54 million dollars, which supported 776 jobs in the local area. The lease sale could cut off access to the lands, pollute local communities and leave irreversible impacts.
In response, Ashley Soltysiak, Director of Utah Sierra Club, released the following statement
“Utah’s National Parks are home to some of the nation’s most diverse and breathtaking red rock landscapes, which serve as critical economic drivers for the surrounding gateway communities. These short-sighted lease sales threaten the future quality and prosperity of these world-renowned parks and the communities which depend upon them.
Tearing up parks and surrounding lands for oil and gas will not only add disruptive infrastructure and vehicle activity but also will degrade the visitor experience, disturb wildlife, and contribute to already worsening air quality.
Hosting an online sale for lands close to Capitol Reef National Park, a sensitive and economically prosperous landscape, continues the dangerous trend of reckless, opaque public land sales with great historical and natural significance.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.