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Pro-Palestinian protesters take over Columbia University building; renewables now power more than half of Minnesota's electricity; Report finds long-term Investment in rural areas improves resources; UNC makes it easier to transfer military expertise into college credits.

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Big Pharma uses red meat rhetoric in a fight over drug costs. A school shooting mother opposes guns for teachers. Campus protests against the Gaza war continue, and activists decry the killing of reporters there.

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More rural working-age people are dying young compared to their urban counterparts, the internet was a lifesaver for rural students during the pandemic but the connection has been broken for many, and conservationists believe a new rule governing public lands will protect them for future generations.

Utah Celebrates Four Decades of Federal Public Lands Management

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Friday, October 21, 2016   

SALT LAKE CITY – On this day in 1976, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that changed the way the feds oversee millions of acres of land, requiring for the first time that they be managed with conservation in mind. Before the Federal Land Policy Management Act or FLPMA, the Bureau of Land Management often sold off acreage for oil and gas, mining and ranching.

Kim Crumbo, western conservation director with the Wildlands Network said the Act requires that the public has a say in how natural landscapes are protected.

"FLPMA essentially provided the legal framework to keep those lands in public ownership," she said. "So, these are America's lands, and the American public deserves a voice in how those lands are managed."

The BLM oversees one out of every ten acres of land in the nation, land owned by all Americans, including Utah's McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, and the Lost Spring Canyon and Little Book Cliffs Wildlife Study Areas.

Ken Rait, the director of U.S. Public Lands with The Pew Charitable Trusts, said a number of environmental threats to BLM lands persist across the West.

"Ninety percent of our public lands are open to oil and gas leasing, and 36 million acres are currently leased for oil and gas," he said. "Additionally, there are 340,000 1872 mining claims covering more than 7 million acres across our public land."

He added that BLM lands generate an estimated $2.8 billion a year for the economy.

Bruce Babbitt, the former secretary of the Interior, said these lands are much more valuable to the public when they remain open for outdoor pursuits.

"The recreational value, in terms of hunting, fishing, whitewater rafting, bird watching, camping, are really the biggest component of economic value to the surrounding communities and states," he said.

Having FLPMA in place means Utahans will be able to weigh in as the BLM prepares its Master Management Plans for Cedar City and St. George, and leasing plans for Moab, Monticello and the San Rafael Desert.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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