~~ 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

~~ Bear Essentials ~ Sept 24, 2017~~

A Monument in Name Only?  Salt Lake Tribune

“San Juan County officials reject claims that looting is even a problem, arguing tourists pose a bigger threat to the region’s fragile cultural sites embedded in it canyons and mesas. . .

The Bear Ears Commission members’ June 28 hike with BLM staff provoked an angry response from the San Juan County Commission, which has lobbied hard for the monument’s rescission on the grounds that it disenfranchises local citizens and serves no legitimate purpose.”

v Federal Land Ownership: Is it Constitutionally Legal?

v Read Article and then vote: Should Federal Ownership of State land be capped at 50%?

v Time Magazine’s view on National Monuments Under Review 

v San Juan County and Contentious USFS Road Closures in the News

                         

   Good News Bear

n  The Hill Reports Several National Monuments to be Downsized

n  Frivolous BE Law Suits Shouldn’t Waste Navajo Tribal Funds by Ryan Benally

n  Dan Love Finally Ousted as BLM Employee

n  Love Fired for Corruption and Theft

n  To Sec. Zinke: Don’t Let False Narratives Block Monument Review

n  Privately Owned Farms and Ranches the Cornerstone of Conservation

n  Libertarian Environmentalism looks at Monuments

n  Forest Service to allow mineral exploration near Mt. St. Helens

n  Grand Canyon Legislation to allow hunters in managing herds

n  Maine Leads the Charge in Food Sovereignty Movement  “Maine is nullifying federal regulations that cripple local farmers.”

n  Darren Parry, NW Shoshone Chairman speaks at Freedom Fest

n  Join the 21^st Century Sage Brush Rebellion

n  Zinke Directive Emphases Fuel Reduction to Control Wildfires

“This year-to-date, 47,700 wildfires have burned 8 million acres across the country, with the majority of the devastation in the states of California and Montana. High-profile fires in Yosemite and Glacier National Parks have caught national headlines, however millions of acres of forest and grassland have burned in recent months.”

n  Tracking Proposed Monument Reductions  Stanford University, Bill Lane I.

n  Navajo People have been Restricted Enough  by Gen Mitchell

 

 Bad News Bears

n  Forest Service Planning to Obliterate Roads in SJC

n  More information on designated road closures

n  See What SUWA’s Up To

Despite the strong likelihood that Bears Ears National Monument will be modified in coming months, Forest Service officials in southeastern Utah are planning to destroy at least 14 public roads within the monument’s current boundaries.

n  Indivisible Project; well funded and spreading  The Indivisible Project is a registered 501c(4) nonprofit. Our mission is to cultivate and lift up a grassroots movement of local groups to defeat the Trump agenda, elect progressive leaders, and realize bold progressive policies. i.e. World Globalism

n  Yet another “Shift” to the Left Jonah Yellowman, one of their speakers

n  WildEarth Guardians are set to “Mobilize When the Time Comes”

n  Outside Magazine Claims Zinke’s Memo Contains Lies

n  “Outside” writer, Claims Gun Shops Automatically enroll buyers in NRA

n  BLM Farmington Office Stalls on Drilling Permits

~~~~~~~

http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

                                     Documenting Bears Ears “No Monument” efforts since July 2016