| Representatives from Nine Mile’s advisory board visit the Cottonwood pictograph panel located in the canyon. The Nine Mile oversight committee toured the canyon last Thursday. The members of the group inspected current projects and reviewed proposals for future development in the Nine Mile Canyon area. |
Members of Nine Mile’s obersight committee toured the canyon last Thursday to discuss recent events and impacts in the canyon.
The group discussed possible improvements to the road and rest areas, toured the Nutter Ranch property with representatives of Hunt Oil Company and reviewed work in progress at the Cottonwood panel.
Nine Mile Canyon is rich in natural resources, history, and archaeological treasures, and in the next few years, there are several issues concerning the area that will affect the canyon and the county forever, noted the members of the panel.
Energy companies expect to drill as many as 1,500 gas wells in the Tavaputs field using the canyon as a transportation corridor, according to state, county and energy industry representatives.
Carbon County is making plans to do a major upgrade of the road in the canyon. But the United States Bureau of Land Management might designate a large portion of the canyon as an area of critical environmental concern, which would block mineral development on federal lands within the prescribed site in Nine Mile, continued members of the oversite committee.
Hunt Oil Company and the BLM are also working on plans to make a land swap for the Nutter property in the bottom of the canyon.
The oversight committee is an organization made up of representatives from College of Eastern Utah, the Nine Mile Coalition, Castle Valley Archeological Society, BLM, Carbon County, Carbon Travel Bureau, state trust lands administration, and representative of industry.
The committee is one of several groups working to help make the best possible choices for the canyon, the county and the nation in the coming years, pointed out the members of the organization.
The goal of the panel is to solve problems, make recommendations, help with improvements in the canyon, act as a liaison organization between all interested parties, and to make an interpretive plan for tourists visiting the canyon.
The oversight committee has been instrumental in securing the funds to install interpretive signs along with kiosks in Nine Mile and moving the road in the canyon. The panel has also assisted in overseeing the construction of barriers at the Great Hunt Panel in Cottonwood Canyon.