February 15, 2010
Contact:
Brian Cottam, Associate Director
Southern Utah University Office of Regional Services
435.586.5418
cottamb@suu.edu
Paul Husselbee, GR&RS Media Relations
435.559.0495
husselbee@suu.edu
CEDAR CITY — Planning and management issues involving Iron County wildlife, the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse Program will be among the topics addressed at the Southwest Utah Planning Authorities Council (SUPAC) bi‐monthly meeting on March 2, 2010, at Cedar City’s Heritage Center and Festival Hall.
Michael Worthen and Todd Stowell, Iron County’s natural resource specialist and community planner, respectively, will collaborate on a presentation on County Resource Management Planning and the county’s new wind energy ordinance.
Gaylord Robb, economic development director for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, will discuss the tribe’s planning and projects, while BLM Color County District Manager Todd Christensen will provide an update on gathering in the Wild Horse Program.
In addition, Iron County Administrator Reed Erickson, who serves as executive committee chair of the Utah Prairie Dog Recovery Implementation Program, will introduce Elissa Black as the program’s first coordinator.
The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. It will be preceded by a tour of deer winter range projects near Cedar City, hosted by the Division of Wildlife Resources and the BLM’s Cedar City Field Office staff.
The tour will begin at 9:30 a.m. with a brief presentation and map orientation at the Heritage Center (Rooms 5 and 6), located at 105 N. 100 East, Cedar City.
After the field trip, SUPAC members will return to the Heritage Center for lunch at noon.
For more information about the field trip, contact Bruce Bonebrake at the Division of Wildlife Resources, 435.865.6111 or brucebonebrake@utah.gov.
Free parking for the meeting is available at the multi‐level parking garage on 100 East, behind the Cedar City offices. Directions and a map to the Heritage Center and parking garage are located at www.heritagectr.org/images/DrivingDirections.pdf
SUPAC invites county and municipal elected officials, economic development directors, planning commissioners, and planning professionals, as well as all interested members of the public, to attend the meeting. Lunch with SUPAC members is available at a cost of $10 per person. If interested in attending lunch, please contact Kathleen McDowell, 435.586.7738, before Feb. 26 to RSVP.
SUPAC is a regional collaboration of state and federal agencies and local governments whose geographic emphasis is Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane and Washington counties. Created by then‐Gov. Michael O. Leavitt in 1994, SUPAC aims to facilitate shared goals and strategies for planning and resource development, as well as to enhance information‐sharing and cooperation among agencies, organizations and local governments in southwest Utah.
Cooperators include federal agencies, such as the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service; state agencies, such as the Governor’s Office and Department of Natural Resources; and local governments and organizations in the five‐county region. SUPAC is administered by SUU’s Office of Government Relations & Regional Services.
Wes Curtis, SUU’s Vice President for Government Relations and Regional Services, serves as SUPAC chair. He said the organization provides a consistent opportunity for communication with the highest levels of government focused on important community planning and development issues in southwest Utah, such as public lands, natural resources and transportation.
“These can be very controversial topics,” Curtis said, “but SUPAC provides a consistent forum to discuss these and other critical issues for our region.”
SUPAC is not a planning or advisory committee, Curtis pointed out. Rather, it is a cooperative effort focused on getting decision‐makers together to exchange information, minimize misunderstandings, and explore solutions to important regional planning challenges.
SUPAC meetings occur every two months at locations that rotate among the participating counties. Anyone interested in more information about the cooperative effort or desiring to be added to the SUPAC e‐mail list can contact SUU Government Relations & Regional Services at 435.865.8023 or cottamb@suu.edu.