To Whom It May
Concern,
I am concerned
about the exorbitant financial efforts environmental groups like your
foundation, are putting into securing more and more land in the USA under the
guise of environmental protection and I have to question your real
motives. Since you are one of those “generous”
donors to The Conservation Lands Foundation, I wonder why you feel this urgency
to designate more monuments and parks, when you know full well our country is nearly
bankrupt and can’t afford to take care of the parks and monuments it already
has?
Why do you now
pick on Utah’s Native people, and rural residents, as you seek 1.9 Million
acres to be locked up as part of a Bears Ears monument? San Juan County is the poorest county in the
State of Utah. 53% of our school children are Native American. We need jobs and
resources, not more controls and social programs. If you cared about our country, its existing
parks and monuments, and its citizens, you would be making donations to specific
parks and local schools. This would show
true concern for the land. The Bears
Ears area in question, is already “public” land. Everyone is welcome to come visit, hike,
hunt, ponder, and enjoy. However, the
BLM is understaffed. Maybe that is where
some of your money could go.
Here is why most San Juan citizens don’t trust the National
Monument agenda:
#1 Utah is already full to the brim with Nat’l Parks and Monuments.
#2 State’s rights have been trampled upon time and time again by the Conservation Lands Foundation and their cronies. First the “Monument Men” come with promises that things will not be affected, MUCH, by a National Monument. Then they decimate logging, mining, oil, and coal industries and the tax base that these companies provide and which support our schools. Next they start reducing the AUMS for cattle grazing. The next to be impacted are the stable family businesses which are replaced by seasonal recreation and tourism jobs. This in turn affects school enrollment, and families are driven away from the rural life style they and their ancestors have loved and worked for all their lives. (This scenario is still playing out at Grand Staircase Escalante NM designated 20 years ago.)
#3 And instead of protection, last year 1400 cases of vandalism dotted that Staircase acreage -- all caused by tourists. This is not what we want in San Juan County, Utah. Please reexamine your causes, and pick those that truly bless the land and the people who care about it. Support existing “public” land policies which allow for multiple land use while protecting the actual areas where ancient cultures lived, not mountain ranges where watershed, and recreation are better managed by local input. The original designation of the Cedar Mesa area was a more honest and needed focus for environmental concerns, and there are actually “antiquities” there. Maybe you need to come visit the area, to actually understand the issues.
Janet Wilcox
#1 Utah is already full to the brim with Nat’l Parks and Monuments.
#2 State’s rights have been trampled upon time and time again by the Conservation Lands Foundation and their cronies. First the “Monument Men” come with promises that things will not be affected, MUCH, by a National Monument. Then they decimate logging, mining, oil, and coal industries and the tax base that these companies provide and which support our schools. Next they start reducing the AUMS for cattle grazing. The next to be impacted are the stable family businesses which are replaced by seasonal recreation and tourism jobs. This in turn affects school enrollment, and families are driven away from the rural life style they and their ancestors have loved and worked for all their lives. (This scenario is still playing out at Grand Staircase Escalante NM designated 20 years ago.)
#3 And instead of protection, last year 1400 cases of vandalism dotted that Staircase acreage -- all caused by tourists. This is not what we want in San Juan County, Utah. Please reexamine your causes, and pick those that truly bless the land and the people who care about it. Support existing “public” land policies which allow for multiple land use while protecting the actual areas where ancient cultures lived, not mountain ranges where watershed, and recreation are better managed by local input. The original designation of the Cedar Mesa area was a more honest and needed focus for environmental concerns, and there are actually “antiquities” there. Maybe you need to come visit the area, to actually understand the issues.
Janet Wilcox
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