Brian Maffly
Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Contact Brian
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Recent articles by Brian:
You may have to reserve a time to see Delicate Arch, but is such a system really the best way to rescue Arches from adventure-killing congestion?
You may not need a reservation to tour Arches National Park — yet — but visitors should resign themselves to advance planning if they want to experience the southern Utah park’s sandstone wonders without being stuck in their cars. → Read More
Want to get cash for killing a coyote? Utah’s bounty program now requires more info to fight fraud.
A West Jordan couple provided Utah wildlife officials with 237 coyote scalps over the past couple of years, cashing in each one for $50 under a bounty program targeting the pesky predator. → Read More
San Juan County judge rejects delay in felony gate-closing case, but moves activists’ May 23 trial to Price
A Utah judge has cleared the way to try Rose Chilcoat and husband Mark Franklin later this month on criminal charges of trying to kill cattle in San Juan County, rejecting defense motions that attacked the basis for a prosecution that Chilcoat’s supporters say is politically motivated. → Read More
Feds grant Utah’s largest coal producer a royalty discount worth up to $19 million for mining hard-to-reach deposits
Utah’s largest coal mine is getting a fee discount worth up to $19 million after the Bureau of Land Management authorized a royalty reduction in recognition of unspecified difficulties the company faces in extracting certain deposits of coal. → Read More
May is Utah’s Month of the Bird, Gov. Gary Herbert declares
May is for the birds, according to a declaration issued Monday by Utah. Gov. Gary Herbert. → Read More
Did San Juan County officials orchestrate charges against public-lands activist over closing corral gate?
San Juan County prosecutors last week offered to dismiss felony charges against a conservation advocate accused of trying to kill cattle, but then withdrew the deal unless the activist’s husband admitted guilt. → Read More
How San Juan County turned closing a corral gate into felony charges
On April Fool’s Day last year, Mark Franklin closed a gate to Zane Odell’s corral on Lime Ridge, a windy rise between the small southeast Utah towns of Bluff and Mexican Hat. → Read More
Feds approve master plan for Utah’s Alta Ski Resort calling for controversial upgrades
A small tram, capable of moving 150 skiers an hour to the top of one of the Central Wasatch’s highest peaks, could be in store for Alta Ski Area under a master plan approved this week by the U.S. Forest Service. → Read More
Feds announce new meetings on the future of Utah’s redrawn national monuments
More than three months after President Donald Trump ordered the reduction of Utah’s two large national monuments, the Interior Department has scheduled meetings in the state to gather public feedback on how the redrawn monuments will be managed. → Read More
Ute Tribe takes U.S. government to court over ‘theft’ of land and water in historic Uncompahgre
More than a century ago, the U.S. government made several promises to the Ute Indian Tribe when it evicted the Uncompahgre and White River bands from fertile homelands in Colorado in a largely failed effort to resettle tribal members to Utah’s Uinta Basin, though the arid land was ill-suited for farming. → Read More
Outside the public eye, feds poised to grant millions of dollars in tax royalty relief to struggling Utah coal mines
Utah’s largest coal producer is seeking a tax royalty reduction potentially worth millions of dollars on what it owes for federal coal leases mined at the Sufco Mine outside Salina, yet virtually no information is publicly available regarding the request. → Read More
Study: Halting federal public-lands leases for oil, gas and coal — including in Utah — would reduce climate-changing emissions
In the final years of the Obama administration, climate activists rallied hard against new leasing of federal oil, gas and coal reserves, arguing that leaving those resources on U.S. public lands undeveloped would reduce carbon emissions and slow planetary warming. → Read More
Feds approve uranium mine expansions in Utah’s San Juan County, one of them near Bears Ears
The Bureau of Land Management has issued final approvals for two uranium mine expansions in southeast Utah, including one on the backdoor of what used to be Bears Ears National Monument. → Read More
A search for an ancient crocodile in Utah’s Bears Ears leads to a major discovery of Triassic fossils
Paleontologist Robert Gay’s quest to find the fossilized remains of an ancient phytosaur, a primitive ancestor to crocodiles, turned into something much larger last summer when he came upon a major trove of Triassic fossils on public lands recently stripped from Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument. → Read More
New app TerraTRUTH lets users report damage they see on Utah’s public lands
Conservation groups have developed a new mobile application that lets users to document and report damage they might witness on public lands. → Read More
How the future of Utah’s coal industry rests with a federal judge in San Francisco
After years of study, three Utah coal mines are poised to expand into new federally leased lands that promise to keep them humming for another decade, securing hundreds of treasured mining jobs in rural communities. → Read More
Adventure vs. clean water: Surging foot traffic to popular Utah canyon poses a challenge for Iron County
Kanarraville • Visitors to a popular southern Utah hiking destination may soon require a permit and have to pay a fee under a plan Iron County is developing to address overuse in Kanarraville Canyon. → Read More
National parks need money — but raising entry fees could backfire
The American public loves national parks, even as some destinations are becoming snarled in traffic and hikers pack places such as Zion’s Emerald Pools and River Walk and Arches’ Devil’s Garden. → Read More
Do low snow totals bode ill for Utah skiing in 2018?
Brighton • On a typical New Year’s Day, David Lind would be surfing the South Pacific, but this year he found himself on the slopes of a Utah ski area that is facing some of its thinnest snow cover in decades. → Read More
Moab tour operator tries to block 28 tourists from suing over boat crash injuries
An aluminum jet boat left a Moab dock last summer for a sunset excursion down the Colorado River with a full load of 28 mostly older passengers, tourists on a Utah vacation. → Read More