Rep. Bishop discusses Hill Air Force Base and public lands initiatives during recent radio interview

Congress is on a summer break and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-District 1, was a guest on <a href=”http://610kvnu.com/assets/podcaster/324/2015_08_25_324_36671_2867.mp3″ target=”_blank”>KVNU’s For the People program</a> this week. He spoke about some exciting new additions coming to Hill Air Force Base and about his positions on public lands in Eastern Utah.

He said that with Republicans now in charge, Congress will soon be acting on some of the land issues he has been working on for a long time. With his public lands initiative, he said people are still at the table and making efforts to do something about the issues that he has been involved with.

Bishop said he is anxious to get something done in the counties in Eastern Utah to bring about some kind of certainty so the rules are not being changed periodically. He would like to see some areas set aside for conservation, some where there are guaranteed outdoor recreation opportunities and some guaranteed for economic development.

He said a good precedent has already been set in Idaho.

“We created a wilderness designation in an area that had been threatened for monument status,” Bishop explained. “But we did it, even though it had been talked about for a number of years, I think we were able to move it forward by simply saying, ‘okay, let’s get everyone to actually communicate one with another, involve public input and make sure you have the same elements that I want here in Utah.’

“That is, we will create some conservation, we will guarantee outdoor recreation (in that case in Idaho it was motorized recreation), we will release some study areas that never should have been classified as wilderness in the first place and we’ll provide some kind of economic certainty.”

He said what needs to happen is to stop the arguments and stop the lawsuits and actually get something done.

Regarding Hill Air force Base, it was announced that the first F-35 pilot team has been secured by the base and Bishop, who had a role in making it happen, said the first F-35 fighter plane will be arriving next month.

Bishop said it is good news for Hill Air Force Base and also for America.

“It was a long time in the making. A whole lot of people had to work with it,” Bishop said. “I’m really proud that Utah is the first site in which these planes will be bedded.

“Part of that is because we have the Utah Test and Training Range. It’s also symbiotic because the repair work will be done there at Hill Air Force Base. So having a squadron there, having the repair work there, having the training range just made Utah the ideal spot for it.”

Bishop said this will be important especially in protecting certain range test areas at Hill Air Force Base.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!