Salt Lake City—The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Tread Lightly! have launched Respect and Protect, a public awareness campaign that aims to promote cultural resource stewardship and protection through education, and outreach on public lands in Utah.
The campaign also reminds public lands visitors that looting and vandalism of archaeological and paleontological resources on federal, state, and tribal lands is against the law. If you observe individuals looting sites or stealing artifacts, call the BLM Resource Protection Hotline (Utah) at 800-722-3998 to report the incident.
“When people remove ancient artifacts from the public lands, we all lose,” said BLM Director Neil Kornze. “If each one of us acts as a steward, we can ‘respect and protect’ these historical treasures and preserve them for future generations.”
The public campaign kicks off Wednesday, May 4, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. Light refreshments will be provided. To RSVP or find more information email: RespectAndProtect@TreadLightly.Org, or visit: www.blm.gov/ut.
In addition to the May launch, the BLM and Tread Lightly! will host five additional public events across Utah. Locations include the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum in Vernal on June 11, the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm in St. George on July 16, the Moab Information Center in Moab on July 28, the Utah State University Eastern’s Prehistoric Museum in Price on August 27, and the BLM Calf Creek Falls Trailhead near Escalante on September 24. All events are free and open to the public.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2015, the BLM generated $4.1 billion in receipts from activities occurring on public lands.