Congressman Rob Bishop made stops for town hall meetings throughout the Basin
on Saturday
. Public lands issues dominated the discussion including aspects of the Public Lands Initiative that, after years of work, has been officially introduced to Congress. When asked why the energy zones were left out of the proposed initiative, Congressman Bishop said he and his team thought they could rewrite it and come up with a better approach. “The purpose of the bill is to make sure those areas deserving of conservation will be preserved and the areas that can be sued for economic development will be used,” said Bishop. He also emphasized that it’s important to make things like outdoor recreation guaranteed, not at the whim of land management but as part of statute. The idea is to “give land back to the state to show that the state can manage better than the federal government.” Bishop visited Daggett County in the morning then Uintah and Duchesne County in the afternoon as his final stops on a 10 county meeting tour.
