v Remember to pray for SNOW!
v Thanks, Dashelle
Holliday for writing and publishing several letters this past week. We need
more voices correcting misconceptions.
Address one
or more of these fallacies when you write:
(These are “talking points”
from the Grand Old Broads)
--Most Americans DO NOT want to
reduce our national monuments
Protecting
national monuments has enormous public support. Over 2.8
million public comments were received in response to Trump’s monument
review. Keylog Economics analyzed the first 1.3 million
comments received and estimated that 99.2% of comments opposed the review and any
reductions to National Monuments. An analysis of more than 6,700 of the
comments received found that over 90% of
comments from Utahns opposed the administrative review and wanted to protect
monuments. The Trump administration and
Utah’s elected officials are ignoring the vast majority of comments.
--The Tribes Proposed and
Support Bears Ears National Monument
Tribal
council members from the Navajo, Hopi, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni Tribes
form the Bears
Ears Coalition, which proposed Bears Ears as the first tribally co-managed
National Monument. Altogether, 30 Native American Tribes with heritage tied to
the Bears Ears region have shown overwhelming support for the monument, to
protect sacred uses and the area’s tens of thousands of Native American
archaeological sites. The day after Trump announced slashing the monument from
1.35 million acres to 201,397 acres, the five tribal governments who petitioned
to form it filed a lawsuit against the administration. The Department of Interior claims they
consulted with the tribes, but the decision to reduce Bears Ears does
not represent the views of these tribal governments and the
administration did not go through proper channels for tribal consultation.
--These lands belong to ALL
Americans
Before
monument designation, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante were national
public lands managed by the federal government and open for all to enjoy. They were
never owned or managed by the state of Utah—so these monument reductions do not
“return” the lands to Utahns. Bears Ears National Monument was intended to be
co-managed between Native American Tribes, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM),
and the U.S. Forest Service. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is
managed by the BLM and will continue to be managed by the federal agency. Trump falsely claimed he was “returning” lands
to the people when the public owned these lands all along.
--Monument Designations DO NOT
Lock Out the Public
The only activity national
monument designation prevents within
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante is oil and gas development and mining.
Grazing is still allowed, as well as off-highway vehicles, mountain biking,
hiking, camping, firewood cutting, logging, hunting, and trapping, subject to
Monument Management Plans. Native American herb and seed collection and
traditional uses in Bears Ears are protected under the monument designation.
--National Monuments Bolster,
Not Hurt, Local Economies
Independent
non-partisan research from Headwaters Economics shows that local economies
adjacent to 17 national monuments in the West all expanded following
monument designation. Over two-thirds of the communities studied grew at the
same rate or at a faster pace compared to similar communities their state. From
2001 to 2015:
—
Population grew by 13% and jobs grew by 24%
— Service business jobs grew from 3,916 to 5,561, a 42% increase
— Real per capita income grew from $30,687 to $35,812, a 17% increase
— Service business jobs grew from 3,916 to 5,561, a 42% increase
— Real per capita income grew from $30,687 to $35,812, a 17% increase
--Outdoor Recreation is
Essential to Local and National Economies and creates:
— $887
billion in consumer spending annually
— 7.6 million American jobs
— $65.3 billion in federal tax revenue
— $59.2 billion in state and local tax revenue
— 7.6 million American jobs
— $65.3 billion in federal tax revenue
— $59.2 billion in state and local tax revenue
-- Has Helped Neighboring Economies
Suzanne
Catlett, Board President of the Escalante & Boulder Chamber of
Commerce says it best: “As head of a chamber representing 49
businesses, I can tell you that since the protection of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument,
our local tourism industry in Escalante has grown and is thriving… Thanks to
our national monuments, people want to live here, and new home construction is
at an all-time high. We have no doubt that Bears Ears National Monument will bring the same
economic opportunities to the area. There
is no doubt that shrinking these national monuments would harm our local
businesses.”
Good News Bears
“WashPost’s misleading headline, ‘Areas cut out of Utah
monuments are rich in oil, coal, uranium,’ may seem accurate to those
unacquainted with the ins and outs of energy development, but fossil fuel and
mineral deposits must have the potential to yield profits before an area is
even considered. There may indeed be oil, coal and uranium resources in the
ground in southeastern Utah, but according to the scientists at UGS, either due
to the size of deposits or the expense and difficulties involved in exploration
and extraction, they are not worth the trouble.”
n
When
the Shoe’s on the Other Foot Idaho State Journal
n Trump Shrinks Bears
Ears Navajo Times
“Scott
Pruitt recently issued a directive to end a 20-year string of “sue and settle”
cases that have funneled untold millions of tax dollars to
environmental organizations. . . About 20 years ago, government agencies
stopped collecting data on these settlements, so they could no longer report to
Congress on the amount of money involved, or the groups to whom it was being
paid. Long-time observers know it amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, and
the recipients are mostly large environmental organizations.”
n BLM Agent Wooten reports
Unprofessional behavior by BLM Video
by Washington Representative Matt Shea refers to
Operation Cerberus
Bad News
Bears
n Stop Assault on Public Lands, Opinion in Des. News
n Uranium and White Mesa Mill Criticized by HCN.
v Other Articles of Local Interest
v Sec.
Zinke, Pres. Trump’s Attack Dog? Outside Magazine
v Interview
with Jonah Yellowman video by Alex Cabrero
~~~~~~
Documenting
Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016
