~~ Bear Essentials ~ Nov. 3, 2017 ~~

Green Groups Oppose Trump’s Utah Visit: Time to Speak Up

Sign San Juan’s Letter and Welcome the President to Utah

Facts included in the letter: “Radical environmental groups have shown disrespect to Local Native American residents by narrating a false scenario, using identity politics and questions of “Native American” sovereignty in terms of the Monument designation. Native Americans closest to the Bears Ears have told us time and time again that “sacredness should not be synonymous to national monuments.”

We understand much of the sacred sites and cultural heritage areas of Native American origin are already thoroughly protected to include:
*Grand Gulch Wilderness Area - 105,213 acres
*Dark Canyon Wilderness Area - 57,248 acres
*Road Canyon Wilderness Area - 52,420 acres
*Mancos Mesa Wilderness Area – 50,899 acres
*Fish Creek Canyon Wilderness Area - 40,160 acres
*Cedar Mesa Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) - 30,752 acres
*Butler Wash Wilderness Area - 24,277 acres
*Cheesebox Canyon Wilderness Area - 14,831 acres
*The Indian Creek Wilderness Area - 6,870 acres
*Mule Canyon Wilderness Area- 5,990 acres
*Bridger Jack Mesa Wilderness Area - 5,290 acres
*Natural Bridges National Monument - 7,780 acres

All within the unnecessary boundaries of the Bears Ears National Monument, over 90% of the area included in the list were designated through a democratic congressional legislative process.

We are certain that under these existing federally protected areas, sites of significant historic and cultural concern will remain in the capable hands of the federal agencies charged with protecting these places of wonder. How are we certain?
The current powerful laws already in existence to protect these places are:
*1935 Historic Sites
*1960/1974 Reservoir Act
*1966 National History Preservation Act
1980 Amendment NHBA - Exec. Order Protection & Enhancement of Cultural Environment
*1974 Archeological & Historic Preservation Act
*1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act
*1979 Archeological Resources Act (Heavily Enforced)
*1990 Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act (Heavily Enforced)
*1996 Indian Sacred Site
*2000 CONSULTATION & Coordination with Indian Tribal Government
*2003 Preserve America Act

Bears Ears National Monument has proven to be an unneeded layer of federal bureaucracy which our great Nation simply never needed. The Antiquities Act demonstrates the abuse of federal power as well as being obsolete in its current form.”
We welcome a visit by the 45th President of the United States to the State of Utah.

Also:  Write or Call the President:

Write to Secretary Zinke: Dept. of the Interior  1849 C Street, N.W.  Wash. DC 20240 

Good News Bears

Pres. Trump Indicates Bears Ears Will be Sized down; Visit in December

n  CNN’s Report on Sizing down Bears Ears

n  Local Voices Trump Outside Special Interests

n  Rose Chilcoat Hearing Nov. 3, Monticello

n  Pruitt (EPA Head) Plans Overhaul of Advisory Boards Whatever science comes out of EPA shouldn’t be political science,” said Pruitt, a Republican lawyer who previously served as the attorney general of Oklahoma. “He suggested many previously appointed to the panels were potentially biased because they had received federal research grants.”

n  Possible BLM Director Slot for Property Rights Lawyer Karen Budd Falen

“Throughout Ms. Budd-Falen’s career, the foundational principles that appear to have consistently guided her work are: That the freedoms we are entitled to in this country are the product of rights bestowed upon us, not by man, but by God; That our Constitution was written for the purpose of limiting our government’s ability, if not proclivity, to erode those rights; and That, unless those freedoms are vigorously defended, they will be vanquished in the course of time.”  [Ms. Falen was also one of the presenters at the Kansas conference that 10 SJC residents attended this past summer.]

n  Dan Jones Poll says Utahans favor downsizing Bears Ears

n  Garfield County Hopes to Rebuild Road to Hole in the Rock

n  Forests: Don’t Love them to Death

n  Colorado Congressman from Cortez, Supports Altering Antiquities Act

n  EPA Awarded 85 M. to Assess Old Uranium Miles Adjacent to Reservation

n  Dan Love on the Stand Concerning Role in Bunker Standoff 

n  Free Range Report on D. Love.

n  Congressmen Ask  AG’s office to Prosecute Pipeline Terrorists

Bad News Bears         

n  The Left Describes the Zinke Doctrine

n  Westwise Claims Karen Budd-Falen is Unfit to Head BLM

n  Bunkerville Trial of the Century gets off to Rocky Start

“The prosecution seems to think that the Inspector General’s Office is not accurate in their reporting, and its documents cannot be trusted. The report is accurate enough to fire Dan Love from the Bureau of Land Management. It is accurate enough for our elected officials. It is accurate enough for Washington DC bureaucrats. Yet it is not accurate to the Federal prosecutors?”

n   Democrats Urge Trump to Not Shrink Bears Ears & Escalante Monuments

n  Calif. Congressman Blasts Trump’s Decision to Downsize Monuments

n  Uranium One deal with Russia  &  San Juan County Connection

n  National Park Fees Likely to Increase in Utah in 2018

n  Agro-Terrorism: A Threat to America’s Food Supply?

n  EPA bans wood burning, and wood burning stoves  Old news, but may be new to you.

            Other issues related to San Juan County

n  Possible Incorporation of Bluff Discussed  KSJD radio interview

n  Utah Navajo Health   KSJD interview with Michael Jensen, concerning Utah Navajo Health Services

n  Sage Grouse are winning:  No thanks to Federal Regulations

n  Stay Current on San Juan county Road Conditions Join

~~~~~

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016

~~ Bear Essentials ~ Oct. 22, 2017~~

 vBe sure to Vote:  Nov. 7, Tuesday, or mail in your Ballot

vvForest Service meeting this week:  San Juan County Commissioner meeting Tuesday Oct 24th at the Monticello community/senior center. The local Forest Service Agency presentation at 9:45 am, with a Q & A session. If you care about cattle grazing, road obliteration; if you are against the USFS creating a large wilderness area in the forest; or are concerned about limiting access to ATV's, and perhaps firewood gathering, hunting, and all other recreational opportunities in the Manti La Sal Forest, you ought to go to the meeting. It starts at 9:00, Forest Service scheduled at 9:45. But come early in case they are ahead of schedule.

v Satire of the week:

v Roast Marshmallows, Not Forests  “We cannot preserve a beautiful forest forever like a photograph, because it is still growing, and eventually dying. Today’s overgrown national forests produce at least twice as much new growth as managers remove every year, so the situation continues to get worse while Congress fiddles. Our generation has thus squandered the great legacy of the conservation movement, our national forests.”

Good News Bears

n  Rob Bishop Seeks to Reform Antiquities Act

n  Are the Days of Sue and Settle Over? EPA overregulation effects

n  Western leaders assert state control over energy permitting in new bill

n  EPA chief issues new directive to end abusive ‘sue and settle’ deals

n  Native American Energy Act Promises to Ease Poverty

n  Wyoming Attorney May be Next BLM Director

n  Western Congressional Caucus Pushes for Antiquities Act Reform

n  Definitely time for Antiquities Act Reform  Op-ed by Matt Anderson

n   Grazing not to blame for bull trout decline  14 yr. Old law suit dismissed

  Bad News Bears         

n  SUWA’s Band of Badgers Confront State Leaders Regarding Public Land

n  When Good Intentions Lead to Bad Results in the Environment

n  Unequal Access to Justice Impedes Fairness and Costs Billions

n  Utah Wildfires Reignites Debate Over Constitutional State Control of Lands    

“According to a tally from that year, there were more than 20 federal agencies or departments that EACH had MORE personnel than Congress.  The Department of Agriculture alone had nearly six times more employees (95,223 vs. 16,432). Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory (R), co-chair of the Commission on Federalism, describes America’s current state as a bike with lopsided tires – one overinflated, the other completely flat. To him, it’s not so much about who is holding the handlebars. America simply can’t move forward until the air pressure is more equitably distributed.

So in February, members of Utah’s Commission on Federalism, with Trumpian winds at their back, drew up a list of more than five pages of powers they’d like to bring back to the state. Among them: Mitigate catastrophic fire risk on national forests and rangelands.”

n  Minnesota Enviros Anti-mining Agenda Causes Rift in Labor Party

n  Credibility of Bears Ears “Running” Expert Questioned

~~~~~

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016

~~ Bear Essentials ~ Oct. 8, 2017~~

Quote of the week: “It is often said we now live in two Americas. Nowhere is that description truer then when it comes to land owned by the federal government. In the United States east of the Rockies, the federal government owns just 4 percent of all land. But west of the Rockies, the federal government owns more than half of all land including almost two thirds of all land in Utah. When an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy owns and manages more than half the land in your state, that is a recipe for disaster.”               Senator Mike Lee

v DOI moving in the right direction on National Monuments:

“Creating too large national monuments — results in agencies lacking the necessary resources to adequately manage sites. The federal government currently has a backlog of $18.62 billion in maintenance projects. A better approach is to right-size monuments and allow for limited economic activity in areas where there won’t be damage.” 

v National Monuments Discussed by Heritage Foundation Washington DC (10-4)  Includes: Senator Mike Lee, Congressman Rob Bishop, Matt Anderson, Ryan Benally, New England fisherman, and Maine sportsman. The Antiquities Act was also discussed.  This was very informative.  Listen and Learn..

v Endangered Species Act:   

 “In the nearly fifty years since it was signed into law, the ESA has done more to impede economic activity, obstruct local conservation efforts, and give federal bureaucrats regulatory control over private property, than it has done to protect endangered species."    Senator Mike Lee

v Antiquities Act is Robbing Rural Communities of Their Land

v KUER Looks a Bears Ears Stories   Local interviews with Judy Fahys

v Brief History of Recapture Canyon  A video series compiled by Monte Wells

v Consider Donating to Free Range Report (Majorie is a non-NGO funded, patriot who deserves our support and thanks.  No one has helped San Juan County more.)

                         

Good News Bears

n  Secretary Zinke given High Marks for Return to Conservation Ethics

~Mr. Zinke has ordered all his agencies to put a priority on active management against wildfires. “We are spending $2 billion a year fighting fires, money that could be going to far better conservation efforts,” he says, visibly annoyed. ~Such mismanagement is what drives Western frustration, which threatens to become a new Sagebrush Rebellion. “Some of the anger is that our grand bargains have been broken, and those bargains said that you had wilderness, but you also have grazing; you could also hunt and fish,” Mr. Zinke says. Now Westerners “watch these catastrophic fires, and they’ve lost any faith that the federal government is capable of being a good steward.”

n  Trump Oks Emergency Funding for Wildfires and Urges Forest Service Reforms

n  DOI Blasts BLM Dan Love as Example of what is not Appropriate 

“We will hold people accountable when we are informed that they have failed in their duties and obligations,” Bernhardt

n  Yes, Presidents can Revoke National Monuments

“There is a reason we allow presidents to undo the actions of their predecessors. A president who could unilaterally set policy forever would have far too much power and be free of political checks and balances.  President Barack Obama designated most of his record-setting monuments during the twilight of his second term, long after the threat of electoral defeat had passed. Free of political checks, he ran wild with this power.”

n  Navajo Nation Should Not Sue Over Bears Ears  by Ryan Benally

n  “No Use” Public Lands Should Change to “Many Uses”

“Federal lands included in Bears Ears and other national monuments need management by local people on the ground , not by judges in black robes. A starting point would be to require approval by state congressional delegations of any national monument designated in their state. Let state wildlife managers have more say in whether grizzlies are removed from the endangered species list. Entrust Indian tribes with management of their antiquities as they already are with Canyon de Chelly National Monument.  Most of Bears Ears is under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management. It is time to return to the BLM motto: “Land of many uses”—not land of no uses.” 

n  Standing in Another Man’s Shoes   by Jim Stiles, Canyon Zephyr editor

n  BLM Reverses Obama Era Mineral Leasing ban in the West [This is huge!]

n  Should Trump Dump Pernicious EPA Regulations Affecting Farmers?

n  Sage Grouse need Ranchers for Survival

n  Forest Service Reform on Tap/ Helping Prevent Forest Fires

n  Western Caucus Calls for Bipartisan Forestry Management Reform

n  Book about the Bundy Family Written by Utah Author, Lyman Hafen

n  New Bill would Engage Local Stake-holders in Coal Mine Reclamation

 

Bad News Bears         

n  Antiquities Act Weakens Rural Communities by Locking up Land

n  National Review accuses Zinke of Failing to Free up Fed. Lands

n  Access Fund: Alarmist Voice Concerns about Bears Ears

n  Burdensome regulations counteractive to Conservation

n  Environmentalists Sue to Give Colorado River Human Rights

n  Zinke is for shrinking monuments, except in Montana?  Go figure?

n  Greens take on the Working Class

n  Westwise Claims Zinke’s Report is Riddled with Lies

~~~~~

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016