Bear Essentials Feb. 26-March 4

​ Bear Essentials  Feb. 26 - March 5

Movement to rescind the Bears Ears Monument picks up momentum

Since the rescind and “scind" no more effort began, led by Utah’s gutsy congressmen: Lee, Hatch, Chaffetz and Noel there has been an amped up deluge of propaganda from the multi-level marketed green machine. I’m sure you have seen repeated ads on prime-time TV promoting Bears Ears Monument.  In addition, more strident voices are proclaiming “this public land is ours” in newspapers and TV news from East Coast to West.  In newspapers in the Four Corners area there are weekly letters (often from out-of-state) insisting that Utah is planning to sell Bears Ears land and other far-fetched fear mongering. 

Another example of what we face.  Watch and get motivated!

 We plead with you to help counteract this deluge of falsehood and propaganda.  You are the true Stewards of San Juan and we must all fight with the pen, twitter, emails, and our voices. Please let yours be heard.  Often news stories, and opinion pieces in newspapers allow for “comment.”  Please do that. Stay informed and don’t hide your head under the Bear Skin, or we will all be skinned!!  

The three web sites under Good News will provide plenty of information for you to use.  We can't just sit, and pray that our Utah Delegation will fight all the battles for us. Thank you for writing and calling them, and assuring them we appreciate their efforts. They are being attacked unmercifully. Here are local newspapers that accept letters to the editor; some have word restrictions. 250-500 is usually the range, but check.  I suggest composing it first on a word processing program, then you can just copy and paste it in, and reuse it or revise as needed.

• Cortez Journal: news@cortezjournal.com
• Deseret News: letters@deseretnews.com
• Emery County Progress: editor@ecprogress.com
• Four Corners Free Press: freepress@fone.net
• Navajo Times: editor@navajotimes.com
• New York Times: letters@nytimes.com/editor
  Moab Sun News publisher@moabsunnews.com
• Price Sun Advocate: editor@sunad.com
• Salt Lake Tribune: letters@sltrib.com
• San Juan Record: sjrnews@frontiernet.net
• skiggins@thespectrum.com
• Southern Utah News: sunews@kanab.net
• Moab Times Independent: editor@moabtimes.com
• Grand Junction: http://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/submit_letter

 Bearers of Good News

     Please Share specific stories from these sites.  We need more No Monument publicity

--Stewards of San Juan has their official web site up and running.  It will continue to grow as we move forward in our effort to support the Utah delegation of elected congressmen. Thanks to the skills of Devin Bayles Hancock, (our expert, though unpaid web master) we seek to share the truth, history, and facts regarding land issues in San Juan County.

-- SaveBearsEars  web site where families share stories, history, photos and love of the land. It was started summer of 2016, and many of your shared your amazing stories.  The bad news was that it crashed a couple of months ago, and Kara Laws and Cindy Bayles have spent hundreds of hours both creating and recreating the site.  It is up and running again and we appreciate their efforts.

  

--Beyond the Bears blog continues to add articles from across the country related to land issues.  We are not the only state fighting this same issue of more restrictions, under the guise of a National Monument, and the Antiquities Act.  Feel free to share articles, and ideas from my blog.

--Letter to President Trump:  Ways to make America Great Again:

--Take an aerial trip of San Juan via Twisted Arch Productions, Brett Saunders 

Pruitt EPA Confirmation welcomed in Colorado, epicenter of massive EPA debacles

Oregon Lawmakers  Consider Bill for State Authority Over Managing Lands

--*(Use Patagonia’s link to help us: http://p2a.co/mNGUHLJ   BUT follow these Instructions: Patagonia made this tool to complain to Governor Herbert. But you can also use it to praise his efforts and signing of the resolution and working to rescind Bears Ears and reduce the size of GSENM. Be sure to UNCHECK the box authorizing them to text you. Follow their instructions. You'll get a phone call, ignore the recorded message coaching you what to say then when the message is over; it rings you in to the Governor's receptionist. Ask her to connect you to the comment line and leave him a nice message! Call and thank the Governor on Patagonia's nickel! 

--Wyoming wins legal battle with EPA: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver ruled 2-1 that the EPA had no right to ruled that 1.48 million acres of Wyoming did not belong to Wyoming but was instead “Indian country” and subject to the jurisdiction of the two American Indian tribes that reside on the Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming.  File attached.  This is encouraging news.

 Bad News Bears:   

--Ranchers in New Mexico Fear more loss of Grazing  Allotments

--Bill to Help Ranchers Fails in Congress  This bill sought to limit the power of federal agencies. The bill aimed to make any action taken by a federal employee that might negatively affect the use of a public grazing allotment a felony.

--Forest Service Set to Take Over Private Land In Colorado, which is already 96% Federal Land.

--Patagonia Funds Campaign to Protect Bears Ears from Utah Politicians

Talk Show Discusses Bureau of Land Management Raids.  (Start at about 36. Min.) Chris Courtlander begins to talk about the BLM's attack on the Custer Museum in Montana, the three people who committed suicide in Utah over a small shell picked up off the ground that was exempt from being illegal by virtue of the value as well as the fact that it was picked up on top of the ground, and some on Bundy Standoff and M

Brooke Williams Ponders Wilderness and Land Control

Written in response to MoabSunNews article 

Brooke Williams will be discussing his new book, Open Midnight: Where Ancestors and Wildernes Meet 
March 1 in Moab at Back of Beyond Book Store Moab 

Published Response March 2, 2017

by Janet Wilcox

It’s disconcerting to me that esoteric ideology and manipulation is so easily dispensed and promoted by the wealthy who picture themselves as saviors of the world.  There exists a great disparity between those who are being manipulated and maligned and those who funnel millions of dollars into pro monument campaigns. Thus, when Brooke Williams describes his experience campaigning against hard-knock ranchers, farmers, school teachers, and local government in Escalante, Utah who are still fighting for survival, I don’t have much sympathy for his ego-centric ponderings.  But, maybe splitting time between two homes, one in Castle Valley and one in Jackson Hole, Wyo, is tougher than I think! 

Let's take a look at real toughness: there are still Navajos living on McCracken Mesa in San Juan County without running water nor electricity in their homes.  They must burn wood for heat in cold months. When it rains or snows, roads are nearly impassible. Somehow the Navajo Tribe has forgotten this land is also part of their reservation. These Navajos are concerned about biological survival for sure, and have been for decades.  They are very worried about more government promises that will likely be broken.They are opposed to more regulations brought by yet another "National" Monument in San Juan County.

Williams says of his efforts, “What I realized during those years I worked in Escalante was it's not about economics. It's about control.”  That’s just how I feel about the pro-monument multi-level marketing plan: it’s about power-house environmental groups wanting to control others’ lives, including land, animals, grass, and air.  It is NOT just local people who want to have power over their own destinies and land; The Conservation Lands Foundation wants control over their lives and land too! When there are shared values, then compromise is possible.  For instance, clean water and air are definite must haves for all people.  But how land is used, controlled and governed is a different issue. Such was the impasse Williams ran into in Grand Staircase Escalante territory.

 The reason they couldn’t work out their differences is that rural America, by and large, values constitutional freedoms, and the Green Nazi forces promote globalist ideology.  The workers, the survivors, and rural Americans have been too busy making a living to wander around in the desert finding themselves and validating their mission.  However, I’m sure the locals in Escalante probably know the deserts and plateaus of their area better than Mr. Williams.

Just because a person has wealth and stealth does not mean they know what is best for everyone else in this sphere of wilderness, isolation, beauty and potential. If Mr. Williams really understands anything about wilderness, nature, and biological life forces, surely, he recognizes Darwin’s survival of the fittest is still a part of life today. Yes, the desire for survival is innate in us all.  And had it not been for his pioneer ancestor’s desire to survive, he wouldn’t be here to chastise us and denigrate other equally valid life styles – not of the rich and famous-- but of the common man and his love of the land.

-----------------

Other writings by Brooke and Terry Tempest Williams:

Open Midnight:  Where Ancestors and Wilderness Meet

SUWA Attacks ATV Use in Moab 2010

Rare discovery and insight into their lives

Torrey House Press publications

Letter to New BLM State Director, Roberson

Dear State Director, Roberson, 

 Welcome to Utah, and all the sticky issues you'll be dealing with.  You must be a man of grit to accept this State position, but I hope you are also a man of wisdom.

I am not a true “local” of San Juan County, having only lived here 45 years. But I have a great passion and love for all things historical, cultural, and environmental in our county. 

I taught English and Journalism at San Juan High school 1984-1999, and on Utah's Electronic High school for seven additional years.  During that time, I and two others started a regional historical magazine in 1984.  Blue Mountain Shadows has published two issues a year since then, plus sponsored, cultural events, folk festivals, and historical forums. We have published 54 issues.  Several of those issues have been cooperative efforts between the BLM and San Juan County Historical Commission.  If you are interested in receiving copies, please let me know and I will send you some related to the issues you fell heir to.  I think they would give you a broader perspective of the people: Ute, Anglo, Navajo, and Hispanics, as well as what comprises their culture and the land we all love.  

The divisive issue of Bears Ears has given many outside of our county a false perception of what San Juan County is like. We love our public lands, but find further restrictions brought on by a National Monument excessive, and even detrimental to keeping this pristine land healthy; based upon Grand Staircase Escalante, do we not see any economic benefits either.  I do agree that we need additional BLM rangers on the Cedar Mesa area, and had the Federal Gov. not been $20 Trillion in debt, maybe that would have happened before now!  Had we not been the target of militant Dan Love-type BLM militia raids, and falsehoods told to our county commissioners by the BLM, we would still be on somewhat good terms with this agency.  We also resent the excessive money spent by wealthy environmental groups and foundations who lobby against SJC, the poorest county in the state. Those are some of my concerns.

​Thank you for your time, and let me know about the magazines.  The State BLM office may have the three Cottonwood Reclamation magazines already. ​But there are others that would be central to the controversies you have inherited. 

My blog: http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/ contains what has happened since July, when I got involved in this political issue. 

Sincerely,

Janet Wilcox

Look no further than Obama's Monumental Maneuverings

Written in response to The Drake, an outdoor publication which decries Utah's Monumental Maneuvering     (and how Bears Ears relates to fly fishing???)

"If you are concerned about Monumental Maneuvering, look no further than the past 8 years and Obama's 550 Million acres of Monumental lock up, putting our country at risk, and under subjugation to those who will pay off our $20 trillion dollar debt. Those 26 monuments amount to 88.3 million acres; Obama has also added 465.2 million acres to existing monuments. In total, he has designated more land, by hundreds of millions of acres, than any other president. That my friend is enough monumental maneuverings for a century, and one of the reasons freedom loving people didn't elect another "One World Order" Queen of Torts. These monuments were orchestrated by organizations who care more about land than people, more about their ideology than freedoms, and who are funded by "monumentally" wealthy people and foundations the likes of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Wyss Foundation, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, and the Wilburforce Foundation. They love to prey on rural America, the working man, and those outside the "inner circle of wealth."

Janet Wilcox

Stewards of San Juan (SOS) Goes Public

Thanks to the creative, and no-fees included, skills of the very talented Devin Bayles Hancock, Stewards of San Juan now has an information filled web site, where you can both learn, and gather facts regarding the Bears Ears much disputed National Monument.  https://stewardsofsanjuan.org/   Check in often to see what's been added, and share the link with others.

Devin top row far left (but only in pictures!) and her loyal fans.

Montana Realty Company Supports Monuments

That should come as no surprise!

Robert Keith published this letter Billings Gazette Feb. 12: "'As co-founder and managing principal of Beartooth Group, a Montana real estate investment firm that restores agricultural and sporting properties across the American West, I have seen firsthand how our national parks, forests, monuments and other public lands drive economic growth.

That’s why I am a member of the Conservation for Economic Growth Coalition, a group of investors and entrepreneurs who believe that public access to these public lands lures entrepreneurs to Montana and helps employers here and across the West recruit and retain the talented, driven people we need to grow our companies and our economy. Our employees work hard and they play hard, and the spectacular landscapes of our public lands provide the inspiration they need and value to give American companies a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.   Read what else he says to Ryan Zinke:
==========
My response to the letter: I can understand why a realtor might be concerned about Utah’s push to rescind Bears Ears NM; real estate is one of the few business to benefit should it remain. As we visit with Kane and Garfield County citizens who live under the shadow of Grand Staircase Escalante NM, things are not booming. Families have moved away and a state of emergency was declared last year. Schools, logging, cattle ranching have all succumbed to the tightening of screws that go with monument regulations. Tourism is not a year-round family-friendly economy, especially where winter last five months. The Bears Ears area was already public land managed by BLM and Forest Service. 

Of greater concern, should be the monumental maneuverings of the past eight years. Obama's 550 Million acres of Monumental lock up, has put our country at risk, and under subjugation to those who will pay off our $20 trillion-dollar debt. That, my western friends is enough land bondage to last a century, and one of the reasons freedom loving people didn't elect another "One World Order" princess. 

These monuments were orchestrated by organizations such as the Conservation Lands Foundation and those who care more about land than people, more about their ideology than freedoms, and who are funded by "monumentally" wealthy people and foundations the likes of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Wyss Foundation, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, and the Wilburforce Foundation. They love to prey on rural America, the working man, and those outside the "inner circle of wealth."
Sincerely, Janet Wilcox  Blanding, Utah

Outdoor Retailers: Sorry, the Thrill is Gone

Dear Outdoor Retailer,

by Jordan Garn
Policy Buzz

As I sit here pounding my second bottle of (alcohol-free) Martinelli's and trying to piece together this farewell letter through cloudy vision, I can't help but reflect what a great twenty year run we had. As Roxette first sang in the 80's, it must have been love, but it's over now. 

I wish I could say it's not you, it's me. But that would be as disingenuous as you were during recent negotiations with Governor Herbert.  And while your break up was as painful as a Donald Trump press conference, I'd be lying if I said I didn't see it coming. For years you've been threatening to leave. The grass always seemed greener to you in another state, environmentally speaking.

I saw your texts to Colorado and the multiple phone calls to an Atlanta area code. Never mind that Atlanta is as outdoorsy as the Kardashians. I even saw your Facebook search history where you were checking out salacious pictures of Las Vegas. Really?!  That Jezebel?!  Read More about this broken love affair...

Bear Essentials: Feb. 19-25, 2017

Remember what we’re fighting for

Graphic Design by Mark Bradford

“This will be our Best Chance to Make a Difference. . . Something as important as this deserves our best efforts.”  Joe B. Lyman  

----Feb. 25 is the deadline for final comments related to the county planning survey  http://sanjuancountyplan.org/  You can make comments on any of the specific categories that concern you

--If you have even the least inclination to do so, write and let your voice be heard.  We must support State and County Rights and management of public lands.  The media is being inundated by radical lefties from the “progressive” environmental community. Counteract their falsehoods.  In the Moab paper alone there were 3 such articles this week. I know it’s happening in every state with rural areas.  Step up, gather your facts, write, edit, and send. Just a handful of people cannot do it all.  If you need information, look at my blog there are ideas there to utilize in some way: https://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/ 

The article under “Good News Bears” also has good data to use.

--Newspapers to write to: Include your name and contact information

·                  Cortez Journal: news@cortezjournal.com

·                  Deseret News: letters@deseretnews.com

·                  Emery County Progress: editor@ecpross.cgreom

·                  Four Corners Free Press: freepress@fone.net

·                  Navajo Times: editor@navajotimes.com

·                  New York Times: letters@nytimes.com/editor

·                  Price Sun Advocate: editor@sunad.com

·                  Salt Lake Tribune: letters@sltrib.com

·                  San Juan Record: sjrnews@frontiernet.net

·                  skiggins@thespectrum.com

·                  Southern Utah News: sunews@kanab.net

·                  Moat Times Independent: editor@moabtimes.com

• Grand Junction: http://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/submit_letter

--If you have not already done so, email our elected officials, letting them know you appreciate their efforts and remind them of the importance of State Sovereignty and our desire to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument designation.  On each email,, PLEASE 'cc'  Stewards of San Juan at SOS@stewardsofsanjuan.org. We will compile all emails sent and will be able to show the amount of support to anyone that says otherwise. Thank you!! 

Starting Tuesday Feb. 21, we encourage you to call our beleaguered Congressmen and elected officials.  We need to let them know how we are supporting them. They continue to be attacked by those who think “you can buy anything with money.”

Governor Gary R. Herbert
constituentservices@utah.gov

 801-538-1000

Utah Senator Mike Lee
mike_lee@lee.senate.gov

(202) 224-5444

 Utah Senator Orrin Hatch

 (202) 224-5251
john_tanner@hatch.senate.gov
(this is his Chief of Staff who delivers messages to Hatch

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz
Chaffetz@gmail.com

202) 225-7751

House Speaker Greg Hughes
greghughes@le.utah.gov

Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox
spencercox@utah.gov

New State BLM Director: Edwin Roberson

Share some of your specific concerns, and your love of the land with him.

He’s new and doesn’t know much about San Juan from “real” people

801-539-4010

eroberso@blm.gov 

Good News Bears

“Public policy should never be made in response to boycotts and threats, especially when it won’t have any real impact. [i.e. Outdoor Retailers]

Utah will still have a strong outdoor economy. Tourists will still come. We’ll have a stronger energy economy. We will protect Bears Ears. We are protecting and will continue to protect Utah’s iconic land and landscapes. We will continue to collaborate with the federal government, which certainly has a role in public land management.”

The outdoor retailers say they are leaving Utah because we don’t care about our public lands. Here is a list of items put together by the Governor’s Office outlining Utah’s commitment to public lands: 

§  Utah has the largest active watershed and wildlife habitat restoration program in the United States. The Utah Legislature has partnered with local hunters and the federal government to invest approximately $14 million annually for conservation, and we have restored more than 1.3 million acres since 2005. As of 2016, nearly 500 agencies, organizations, and individuals had contributed to these projects through funding or in-kind assistance.

§  There are currently 253 additional conservation projects underway, which include the rehabilitation and restoration of more than 265,000 acres. Six current and three proposed projects (over 9,000 acres in total) are within the new Bears Ears National Monument area. Another 139 projects and 185,000 acres have been proposed for treatment.

§  Read more about Utah’s commitment to public land and use in your letters.

--House Oversight pushes for probe of ethics breaches, possible crimes of BLM bully Dan Love

The investigation of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agent, Dan Love, has been ongoing and complex. With a history of complaints against Love of bullying, overly-aggressive tactics, ethics violations, and now, tampering, lies, and cover-ups, it appears that the most infamous figure in recent BLM history is now under the scrutiny of Congress’ most powerful investigative arm. The House Oversight Committee, headed by Jason Chaffetz, cites extremely serious, potentially-criminal activities, that go beyond Love’s ethics breaches related to the Burning Man controversy of 2015, or his extreme mishandling of the Operation Cerberus and Bundy Ranch cases. Love’s possible criminal activities include; destruction of federal records, witness tampering, and obstruction of a congressional investigation.  Read More

   Bad News Bears

--Environmentalists Leave ‘Ecological Disaster’ At Protest Camp in North Dakota – Gov. Declares Disaster

“The environmental activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline have created such an “ecological disaster” at their protest camp that the North Dakota governor has ordered an emergency evacuation.   When thousands of protesters gathered at the Oceti Sakowin camp to protest the pipeline left in December, they left behind enough trash to fill up 2,500 pickup trucks, LifeZette is reporting.

The activists were there for months, first arriving in April to protest the pipeline’s construction. Their objection that a peak or spill could contaminate nearby waterways. But it appears their own protests have jeopardized the environment far more than any pipeline.”  Read more

--A Look at the Opposition:   An group called the Resources Legacy Fund
(www.resourceslegacyfund.org/<http://www.resourceslegacyfund.org/>) Is
pouring money into the Bears Ears National Monument with funding largely
provided by:

*         The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

*         Wyss Foundation

*         Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

*         Wilburforce Foundation

The money pot being used for the purpose is called the Bears Ears National
Monument Community Engagement Fund at Resources Legacy Fund.

(For e-mail recipients) I'll attached the Resources Legacy Fund's Consolidated Financial
Statements for the years  2015 and 2014 so that you can see what kind of money we are talking
about here. I hope someone will dissect it and write an article related to the millions used, to fund such things, probably at taxpayer’s expense.
Consider this is in in combination with previous foundation funding, and factoring in the number of outdoor equipment manufacturers that are announcing boycotting of the semi-annual outdoor show in Salt Lake City in protest of the opposition to the Bears Ears National Monument and we can see how critically important BENM is to the environmental/progressive community as a whole.  Bears Ears is sizing up as the linchpin of the day for the public lands battle between the left “progressives” and the citizens of the rural American west. This explains their goals. http://resourceslegacyfund.org/programs/bears-ears-fund/

The attack is mounting because the adversary has millions to put into this campaign against truth. We only have agency and truth to fortify us. Stay Informed, write and call often. Encourage others to do so also.  Share this e-mail with others.   Thank you for all you have done and your commitment to help.  If you can’t help, let me know and I’ll take you off this email group.  I only have room for 500, and we need warriors.