Reviewing The Antiquities Act Review: Six Form Letters Account for at least 75,437 Comments

Both opponents to the Bears Ears National Monument and proponents were zealously busy between May 12-26 during the Review period, encouraging their friends to write: however, it continued to be the same David vs. Goliath Battle.  Unfortunately, the Green Machine with their well-paid staff had  been busy designing form letters to feed to hundreds of Environmental Groups Nationwide.  So if you're only looking for repetitive messages, The Rescind the Monument team was out-numbered. But it could also mean Greenies are more easily manipulated, or don't know enough to write their own letters?  

Thanks to the tech skills of Wasatch Front Volunteer, Devin Bayles Hancock we discovered some interesting facts May 26, when the deadline ended. By running a simple search engine on the collection site, we discovered six form letters that were used.  There could even be more.  That means that 75,437 of the 149,669 comments received were form letters submitted by various environmental proponents nationwide. That is 50% of the letters submitted. Here is the break down:

6)  Sixth place goes to the "50 Years Ago" form letters.  There were 2160 replicas of this copy-cat message which began: "Dear Secretary Ryan Zinke,
Bears Ears Monument should have been protected 50 years ago and deserves to be protected for future generations.  Please [dont] rescind or...." Note the typo which didn't even get fixed on most letters!

5)  Fifth place for most repetitive message goes to the "judicious use of the Antiquities Act" form letter with 3181 repeats.


4)  Jumping up to 4th place is the "ecologically rich and culturally valuable" form letter with 4,102 comments submitted.

3)  Third place for "Most Repetitive Message" goes to the Bird Watchers who can't watch without a Monument!!  15,333 results began:  Dear Secretary Ryan Zinke.  As a supporter of bird conservation and our public lands, I strongly urge you to protect . . .

2)   The runner up with a whopping 21,427 copies is this form letter beginning:  (Some people didn't even fill in the blank!)

1) And the #1 most repeated form letter as of June 9 begins:  "Dear Secretary Ryan Zinke, Our public lands are vital to our national legacy. [Theyre] economically beneficial to our local communities, and to our nation as a whole."    This form letter was used 29,234 times and most users did not correct the typo.