~~BEAR ESSENTIALS: June 22, 2018~~

v Article by Amy Joi O’Donoghue  :  Land management vs. law enforcement. Senator Mike Lee: “It is incumbent on this subcommittee to ask whether combining resource management and criminal law enforcement has resulted in a profound disservice to both,” Lee said. “We need to get back to managing federal lands as opposed to terrorizing the communities that surround them,” he said Monday.  [Shake, Rattle, and Troll]

v National Geographic Article: What Shrinking of National Monuments Means

v Scott Pruitt, His Vision for the EPA

v Historic Election next week in Bluff

v Glenn Beck: D-Day, Boy Scouts, Chris Herrod & 2^nd Amendment

v 50 Mllion $ Contract from Bureau of Reclamation to Local Archaeology Co.

v Three Californias On Ballot:  Op-ed in Los Angeles Times

n  Phil Lyman Interview by Bryan Hyde: Freedom vs. Militarized BLM

n  Related article: BLM Attack at Dr. Redd’s Home

n  Media Round Up of Articles Related to Artifact Sting in Blanding

n  Arizona Humane Society Fails to Qualify Wildlife Ballot Initiative

n  John Herrod Runs as Conservative Candidate for Congress

n  Senator Mike Lee Addresses Illegal Imprisonment

n  Public Lands a Political Test: The Malheur Wildlife Confrontation

n  Willie Greyeyes Files Lawsuit Against San Juan County

n  Fox News: Greyeyes Lawsuit

n  Bluff Dilemma:  When a Guppy Swallows a Whale

n  The Dilemma of Increased Tourism: Zions Park Controversy

n  Colorado River Reservoirs Headed to Historic Low

n  Foreign Influence of Environmental Groups Erodes Military Readiness

n  Accidental Burns vs. Controlled Burns? Which Causes More Damage?

n  Dolores Fire: It’s gong to take a lot of Rain to put it out

n  Too Many In Southern Utah Deny Climate Change Effects

n  How Liberal Wackiness Wrecks Local Government

n  Convicted Felons Hired to Promote Renewable Energy Initiative in Az.

n  BLM Officer Shoots Nurse Riding off-road in Side by Side  

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016

Fie on groups Using and Abusing federal $ to Suck the Life out of Rural Communities

Letter to: National Parks Service 12/ 20/ 2017 

National Parks and Monuments have been the victims of poor management, and inadequate budget allocation for decades. Far too much of the DOI funding has been spent on EPA speculation, research, and over spending, on both the state and federal levels. Funds that should have been used to actually maintain existing park "environment" have instead been wasted on frivolous studies and lawsuits, involving sage grouse, turtles, birds, etc. It's time that the DOI takes back its role in managing actual land, water, its resources, and possibilities for multiple use. If wisely utilized the land, timber, and minerals could actually generate money. 

Public lands and those who use them, should generate part of this financial backlog; however, a bigger question is, how much has been spent paying lawyers who make life miserable for Western states and counties? The curse of litigation provides little benefit to real people who live in the West, nor the land they live by. It only spends more and more government money, while maintenance of parks and facilities degenerate more each year. Fie on the so called green friendly groups and their grants and lawsuits, who use and abuse federal money to suck the life out of rural communities and surrounding public lands
Hopefully, you can rectify this mire of neglect, and the excess of litigation.
   Janet Wilcox

Letter to Uintah Basin Standard Nov. 20

I agree with Chris Saeger’s initial statement in the Nov. 17 paper, that as westerners, “we love our public lands.”  It is because of that core value attachment to the land, that San Juan County citizens have been fighting to protect 1.9 million acres from further federal restriction and control, via a national monument.  We appreciate the support given by the Duchesne County Commissioners who approved resolution 16-11 opposing the Bears Ears National Monument designation during their meeting on Nov. 14.   

San Juan County is already home to six of those federal designations/destinations:  Natural Bridges, Hovenweep, Canyonlands, Dark Canyon and Grand Gulch Wilderness areas, and Glen Canyon Recreation Area.   Only 8% of San Juan County’s 5,077,120 acres are privately owned.  We need jobs and a tax base and multiple use of local land not one more monument. Some areas in that coveted land, do NOT meet the definition of “public”, including 43 grazing allotments, 661 water-right infrastructures, 151,000 acres of state trust land, and 18,000 acres of private property, as well as hundreds of miles of roads and infrastructure. 

Because most of the area in question, is already public, the BLM and Forest Service have the authority and jurisdiction to manage it.  It may be true that inadequate staffing has been a problem, but consider that our Federal Government is nearly $20 Trillion in debt; it's a wonder that anything is functioning. If you managed your personal budget like the US government, you'd be filing for bankruptcy, or be in debtors' prison.  Ironically, the US National Parks and Monuments are under a 2-year maintence deferment totaling nearly $11.5 billion dollars. Utah alone is behind $278,094,606 in park maintenance.  There is no money to support EXISTING monuments, much less new ones. 

We have learned from other “monumental” mistakes, that tourist destinations have a heavy negative impact on land.  Because the State of Utah does such a good job of promoting Parks and Monuments, places like Moab and Zions park are now overrun by too many visitors.  In the Cedar Mesa area of San Juan County where thousands of fragile Anasazi ruins exist, such excessive visitation would be counterproductive to preservation of these important sites. The BLM already has the jurisdiction and power to enforce and supervise visitation there. National Monument status would only compound existing problems.

Unlike Mr. Saeger who believes that the federal government can better manage public lands, I find no fiscal support for his position. I would also suggest that perhaps the restrictive nature of federal timber management and policy has often been the very cause of fires. Wouldn’t it be wiser to allow logging, and encourage gathering of dead wood, and allow cattle to graze to control grass, rather than burning up our U.S. forests? I do agree we need to give the president elect a chance to make both America and our public lands great again.  Sign our petition, join our protest, and let sovereign state’s rights speak louder than rich lobby coalitions. www.savebearsears.com

Weighing the Future of Bears Ears Butte

Stanford University's Bill Lane Center for the American West has begun a Blog that discusses land issues and Bears Ears is the first featured topic.  They invited two Pro Monument and two No Monument writers to participate in the debate.  The article was introduced by the editor,  Felicity Barringer.

"A major land-use decision still sits on the desk of President Barack Obama. An inter-tribal coalition of five Native nations is petitioning to use the Antiquities Act to create 1.9 million acres of southeastern Utah, around the Bears Ears butte, as a new National Monument.

The 1.9 million acre Bears Ears National Monument proposed for federal lands in southeastern Utah. View a detailed map of the proposed area.

It would include a museum-like center focused on both tribal knowledge and scientific knowledge. As proposed, a joint federal-tribal council would manage the monument. Tribal representatives would form a majority of the council — the first time since the United States was founded that Natives have formally controlled the lands where they originated, rather than the reservations where they were confined.

The proposal has reignited the long-standing anger of local residents and their representatives who deeply resent federal moves to take more control over the lands that they call home. There is no local official on the proposed monument council. Opponents include Navajos who live nearby.

As a recent issue of High Country News explained, people of many cultures call the region home. In the 1860s, Navajos were brutally evicted from the area by U.S. troops. Within the proposed monument lands are countless sites with a rich trove of rock art and artifacts left by the ancestors of modern Zuni and Hopi Natives — sites that have been looted for years. The area is also a touchstone for Mormon settlers descended from members of the Hole in the Rock expedition, who nearly died on their pioneering journey to the region in 1879. Its mineral resources have kept it on the radar of the mining industry. A rival proposal for state control of the area is pending in Congress."

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