Two UT Nat'l Monuments to Shrink

[TallGrass]

Meanwhile in Utah...
AP News: Sen. Hatch says Trump is shrinking two national monuments in Utah
Salt Lake Tribune: Majority of Utahns favor trimming Bears Ears ...
msn.com: Trump to shrink to UT national monuments senator says

National Monuments discussed: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante (see also Bears Ears non-NM page, photo)

I've also heard some groups opposed the Bears Ears designation because they wanted to be the ones protecting their heritage, not the federal government who could also restrict their historical access.

And where is Rhea Suh (president of the Natural Resources Defense Council) getting that Bears Ears is "the nation's first national monument created to honor Native American cultural heritage."? I've been to Hovenweep National Monument (est. 1923) on the CO/UT border. And then there's Agua Fria, Alibates Flint Quarries, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, Browns Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, Canyons of the Ancients, etc. I'm all for preservation, but Bears Ears is hardly the first "NM," let alone other NPS sites like Mesa Verde which is also a World Heritage Site.

[kaiman]

And so the legal battles begin...

[mountaingoat-G]

This is surreal.. in a "too bad to be true" way, but I know it is true.

I have a friend who lives very near the GSENM and they are doing what they can to fight it, but could use help.

http://gsenm.org/

[ezabielski]

Are there any specifics on how large and what would be cut out of these NMs?

[kaiman]

This is surreal.. in a "too bad to be true" way, but I know it is true.

I have a friend who lives very near the GSENM and they are doing what they can to fight it, but could use help.

http://gsenm.org/

Thanks mountaingoat-G, yes GSENM is a great organization. Also the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) has been working with groups in both Escalante and San Juan County (near Bears Ears) for decades and is a worthwhile organization to donate to: https://suwa.org

Also any support people can give to Native American groups is appreciated, as the Bears Ears project has the potential to change their economy over the coming years for the better: https://bearsearscoalition.org

This announcement couldn't come at a worse time for them either as companies recently announced that they will be closing the Four Corners Coal Power Plant near Page and coal mining operations on Black Mesa near Kayenta in the next two years, which are two of the biggest employers in the area for the Navajo and Hopi tribes and without an increase in tourist dollars may be devastating for them: http://www.azcentral.com/story/money/bu ... /98144914/

Kai

[Rollie Free]

The Grand Staircase designation by Clinton is a fascinating look at politics.

Believe me, there aren't a bunch of people in Washington worrying about public land designations insofar as they apply to preservation. Most couldn't care less. When something like this is done, like anything else, its politically motivated. Clinton's Grand Staircase was a shrewd, brilliant move. I don't present that as a defense or criticism. Bill didn't wake up one day and think to himself how nice it would be to have 1.7 millions acres set aside for preservation in Utah. In fact, some might argue that much of the land isn't exactly save worthy (depending on your bent).

http://www.laissez-fairerepublic.com/indocoal.htm

Its nearly impossible to have a cognizant discussion about things like this. We can't let industry run rampant as they would pave over and pulverize Goblin Valley and hook up a pipeline to Old Faithful.
On the other hand we can't have every rock 'protected' as nice as that may be. Somewhere in the middle, we have to compromise although some might disagree.

[mountaingoat-G]

Are there any specifics on how large and what would be cut out of these NMs?

Great question !


I don't know off the top of my head, but I have heard it is a drastic reduction. We were out there visiting about a month ago and talked with two locals who said that they are already running the monument as if it was overturned. We saw bulldozer tracks going up a canyon in a Wilderness Study Area (I have pictures of the tracks). We were told that the administrator of the monument was directed by Presidential order to try to attract extractive industries with marketing money and that "tourism was bad".

As to the answers to your questions, some digging around online would probably yield results...

[kaiman]

Are there any specifics on how large and what would be cut out of these NMs?

From what I've read the Trump administration is considering cutting the Kaiparowits Plateau section of Escalante out of the Monument to open it up for coal mining and may try to reduce the Bears Ears Monument boundaries by as much as 90%

http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/201 ... -monument/

[TallGrass]

Though I've been to other NP sites in the region, I've yet to explore Grand Staircase and the evocative imagery of the name:
"In the 1870s, geologist Clarence Dutton first conceptualized this region as a huge stairway ascending out of the bottom of the Grand Canyon northward with the cliff edge of each layer forming giant steps."

Grand Canyon (A), Chocolate Cliffs (B), Vermilion Cliffs (C), White Cliffs (D), Zion Canyon (E), Gray Cliffs (F), Pink Cliffs (G), Bryce Canyon (H)

We saw bulldozer tracks going up a canyon in a Wilderness Study Area (I have pictures of the tracks).

Care to post?

The Grand Staircase designation by Clinton is a fascinating look at politics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_sta ... ontroversy

Are there any specifics on how large and what would be cut out of these NMs?

For reference detail, here's a Full Size Version (~2,220x1,700) of the below


Bears Ears news on NPR
Obama Designates Two New National Monuments In Nevada And Utah December 28, 2016
Bears Ears Monument Is A Win For Tribal Food Sovereignty. Will Trump Undo It? January 9, 2017
Trump Administration Wants To Shrink Bears Ears National Monument June 12, 2017
Federal Protection For Utah National Monument Threatened (and podcast) August 24, 2017

14er Trivia: Mount of the Holy Cross was a National Monument for 21 years, 1929 to 1950.

[montanahiker]

"...authorized the President to proclaim "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" on federal lands as national monuments, "the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_ ... ed_States)

As someone who wants natural environments protected but understands how both parties use laws for political advantage, it seems like "shall be confined to the smallest area" is the real issue. It's not a coincidence that Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Cascade–Siskiyou were established/expanded at the sizes they were and right before/after an election. They should all exist but are their expansive sizes appropriate under the Antiquities Act?

[mountaingoat-G]

We saw bulldozer tracks going up a canyon in a Wilderness Study Area (I have pictures of the tracks).

Care to post?

Here is one pic:

Steep Creek.jpg (201.94 KiB) Viewed 3708 times

On a related topic, the people I know live in Boulder, Utah- on the north edge of the Monument. They said Zinke did not even listen to any pro-monument people on his tour of Utah, that it was only a tour to speak with the extractive industries. The environment is one (very important) thing, but the economy is another. The tourism economy, from what I have been told, have already offered more benefit to the locals than extraction and it will be damaged severely by the proposed reduction.

[AlexeyD]

The environment is one (very important) thing, but the economy is another. The tourism economy, from what I have been told, have already offered more benefit to the locals than extraction and it will be damaged severely by the proposed reduction.

This is the issue. Like it or not, the world we live in is one in which the political question "should we support it" is directly related to "is someone making money off of it". In the case of these monuments, the answer to the latter appears to the current powers that be to be "no". That means that those of us who favor environmental protection need to learn to fight fire with fire; that is, learn to convince the decision-makers that there is more $$$ to be made from tourism and associated economic activity than from the temporary and volatile market that is resource extraction.