The sacred lands of Utah’s Bears Ears brought 5 tribes together. An executive order is reviving effort to protect them
A rocky corner in southern Utah has been the focal point of protests and political battles for years. A recent move by the Biden administration is giving Native tribes hope that a broken promise could be mended.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden ordered federal officials to review the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument a sprawling region rich in red rock canyons, cliff dwellings and numerous archeological sites that former President Donald Trump drastically shrunk in size (December 4, 2017) only 11 months after its official designation (December 28, 2016).
On Jan. 20, Utahâs congressional delegation issued a statement opposing the Biden Administrationâs intent to immediately restore the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, which were reduced by former President Donald Trump.
In its statement, Utahâs congressional delegation argues that âroughly two-thirds of our backyard belongs to the federal government, which has meant land management actions have often been done to us rather than with us.â
âWe share a sincere desire to find a collaborative, broadly supported solution to the political football of national monuments in Utah, specifically Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments,â the statement reads.
, which President Donald Trump reduced by 2 million acres in 2017. The announcement rekindled tensions in Utah, where national monument designations have been used to add protections to federal public lands for more than 100 years, often over the objections of state leaders.
In order to better understand the history and use of the Antiquities Act, we caught up with David Gessner, author of the new book “
,” by email to help put the current debate into a historical context.
The Salt Lake Tribune: Monument designations have a long history in the Southwest. In fact, the very law that allows presidents to create national monuments on federal public land the Antiquities Act of 1906 originated because of widespread looting of Southwestern cultural sites around the turn of the 20th century. How did the act become law?
by Jerry Otero, Legislative and Policy Director
Joining the Grand Canyon Trust as the legislative and policy director this month, I have my work cut out for me. In the past four years, more than 100 environmental protections have been unraveled, over 26 million acres of public lands were offered for oil and gas development across the West, our federal energy policy stumbled backward, ignoring climate change, and Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears the first national monument created at the request of Native American governments were slashed.
Fortunately, now is a moment of great opportunity, and we re rolling up our sleeves.
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