BLANDING, Utah Interior Secretary Deb Haaland met with tribal leaders, elected officials and other stakeholders on Thursday as part of a Biden administration review of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, a wide swath of southeastern Utah that has become a symbol in the debate over how to manage public lands.
Haaland said she intended to talk with as many people as possible to determine how best to preserve what she called a very special place, including pictographs she saw while touring the monument. She said she understands the effects the monument struggle has had on people who live nearby and acknowledged that Bears Ears belongs to everybody.
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Navajo Nation calls on restoration of Bears Ears National Monument during Deb Haaland visit to Utah
elisfkc2 / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
More than three years after the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah was drastically shrunk in size, tribal leaders and activists are hopeful that Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland would soon recommend its restoration.
Haaland is visiting the Utah monument on her first trip as the new interior secretary this week. She arrived on Wednesday for three days of meetings and hikes in the sprawling region rich in red rock canyons, cliff dwellings and numerous archeological sites.
President Joe Biden has ordered a review of the monument’s boundaries after former President Donald Trump ordered them reduced by roughly 85% in 2017.
Utah and Western local officials call for the swift restoration of Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monuments
Mountain Pact network of local elected officials release statements
Author:
News Release
The Mountain Pact
With Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland visiting Utah this week as part of the Biden administration’s review of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments as outlined in the executive order President Biden signed on his first day in office, The Mountain Pact network of local elected officials released the following statements:
Anna Peterson, Executive Director of The Mountain Pact said, “Over 140 local elected officials from across the West, including Utah mayors, council members, and county commissioners support the swift restoration of protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. It s time for real collaborative management to begin with Tribes at Bears Ears and for the restoration of protection