~~BEAR ESSENTIALS: Oct. 20, 2018~~

Matt Redd Monticello rancher, photo by Aaron Huey
November 2018 issue of National Geographic

~~Bears Ears: Lead story in November National Geographic: Battle for the American West

Though dozens of local people were interviewed over the course of several weeks by author Hannah Nordhaus, very little was used in the actual article from those interviews.  The editing staff at Nat’l Geo was part of that dilemma, and the real story was bigger than a single article could cover. Maps and photographs were great.  Sandy Johnson was one of several ranchers who were interviewed. (Photos were by Aaron Huey who made at least 4 or more trips to San Juan)

 

~~Sage Grouse Controversy Raised Again in  Newest Nat’l Geo

~~Cedar Mesa 360 degree video by Aaron Huey

~~What Bears Ears Means to Native Americans: Nat’l Geographic

Energy Fuels White Mesa Uranium Mill--Aaron Huey photo

Kyle Kimmele, one of many SE Utah citizens who own mining leases.  Photo by Aaron Huey

~~774 comments submitted regarding Energy Fuels/ US Uranium Market

“One of many comments made by businesses impacted by foreign suppliers of uranium: “The US uranium industry has suffered great harm and our national security is threatened as a result of excessive imports of foreign uranium. The United States over reliance on price insensitive uranium from countries like Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan with their state-owned and funded companies, has displaced US production and led to a severe decline in the industry. As a service provider to the US uranium industry, this has also hurt our business.”

~~Write-In Candidates for County Commissioner—Districts 2 and 3                                                          

                                                      

1)     Republican Al Clark running as Write-in against Kenneth Maryboy District 3

2) Democrat Maryleen Tahy running as write-in District 2 

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Phil Lyman running against Marsha Holland District 73 

 Audio of  Debate with Marsha Holland.

 “Public lands management is an area that we certainly do not agree on. I prefer local management of local resources and I rely on constitutional provisions that guarantee that even a state like Utah has an equal footing with other states. Federal agencies are creating massive problems to which they claim to be the solution. It is time for Utah to end the madness. We are not a federal administrative unit, but a sovereign and independent State; sometimes we have to act like it. 
I have never been accused of being neutral on matters of public land, fiscal responsibility, or political accountability. The State Legislature has the duty to safeguard these qualities and to safeguard the liberty of the people against federal encroachment, not the reverse for which Ms. Holland seems to advocate.”

“Any legislation that I am involved in is going to emphasize less government interference with people’s lives and more accountability from government agencies. If I could figure out legislation to rein in the federal agencies and put them in their proper jurisdictional role instead of this god-like role that they think they have, I would do that.”    Recapture Incident: “A mistake that I made was believing that the federal agencies had integrity and that the department of justice believed that a person was innocent until proven guilty. And that the U.S. attorneys followed that same ideology.”

~~Kelly Laws Running for County Commissioner in District 3

Why Voters Should Not Support Tax Increases 

By Phil Lyman

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Be sure to vote: Mail in or at polling booths

Navajo Man Shot by Ranger at Canyon de Chelly

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Read Past Editions of Bear Essentials at: http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

Documenting Bears Ears Controversy and Public Land Issues since July 2016

                                                                                                  

~~BEAR ESSENTIALS: Oct. 5, 2018~

Life in the West

·       Get Informed about Propositions you’ll be Voting on – Before your Ballot Comes!

This link explains the Pros and Cons from the Lt. Governor’s Office

·       Glen Canyon/ Lake Powell more visitors and spending than Zions

·       New Editor for San Juan Record.  Bill Boyles Retires after 24 Years!

·       Dust in the Wind: Reflections by Editor Bill Boyle

·       Selling San Juan County Part II: The Gentrification of the New West: a la Moab, Durango, Jackson Hole

~Lynn Jackson, former Grand County Councilman: “It’s all rather confusing to me. San Juan doesn’t want to become another Moab, yet they are following the exact blueprint that got Moab on its path to progressive nirvana. Welcoming and supporting outdoor environmental education programs and investments, providing support for building mountain bike trails, hiring an economic development coordinator with deep ties to the megalithic outdoor recreation industry, and creating a tourism slogan that’s over the top, in this case ridiculously over the top. “Make it Monumental” is just hard to figure, sending the message you’re all good with monuments down there, in light of what’s gone in the last 18 months? San Juan, looks like you’re well on your way, following the recipe exactly.“

~In discussing Springdale, Utah and Nat’l Parks: “Yale professor James Scott argues that ancient cities were walled not just to keep invaders out, but to keep the slaves whose labor the elites depended upon in.  The modern city has improved upon the ancient model by replacing physical walls with nifty technologies like exclusionary zoning, subsistence wages and commuting.  This framework guarantees the provision of all the poorly compensated labor necessary to sustain a bourgeois utopia with virtually none of the pesky visual evidence of actual poverty or hassles of chattel slavery.  Win-win.”  

~Stacy Young: “Both Blanding and Monticello have had about the same population since 1980, and the relationship between incomes and the cost of living in both towns is rational and predictable.  In fact, the average household in each of these towns earns significantly more than their counterparts in the more trendy towns (Moab)  of the region, and this remains the case despite the sagging fortunes of extractive industries in the county over the past 30 years.  Of course, this relative wealth advantage is further boosted, by a lot, when it is adjusted for the disparity in the cost of living between, say, Monticello and Moab. The disinvestment and depopulation crisis that defines much of rural America does not really describe conditions in San Juan County.”

 

n  Loans for Businesses Crippled by Drought in Southern Utah

n  Follow Comments: Petition to Gov: Stop Buying Foreign Uranium

n  Tired of contention and strife: Follow San Juan Connections, and  share your own connection story

“At Neldon Cochran's funeral and viewing, October 7, 2017, I visited with Jodi Laws Cochran. As an Air Force pilot, her husband Jerry has been assigned all over world, yet everywhere they went they met people with Blanding connections. She suggested I collect stories with that theme. I thought it was a great idea, and with everyone's help, it is becoming a reality. This blog is dedicated to Jodi and Jerry Cochran, the impetus for making it happen. Enjoy.  Please share additional “connections.”

n  Jim Stiles:  Media Bias and San Juan County Government(s)

~~ It was arranged for the USC students to be featured on the PBS News Hour. Their task was to fairly portray, to a national audience, the ongoing complex political and cultural clashes and controversies in San Juan County-- and do it in five minutes and forty-eight seconds.”   Such is the shallowness of television coverage dealing with controversy!  Stiles’ article provides links to the PBS slanted coverage. With due respect to the college team:  what they originally submitted was 11 minutes long, but  PBS kept hacking away!

The size and complicated logistics of Navajo Reservation polices and politics deserved to be included in the PBS video, as well as how and why they consider themselves a sovereign nation and how that impacts county government in four states                                                                                       

n  SL Tribune: Marking the 22^nd Anniversary of GS Escalante NM

n  Selling San Juan County: Part I

n  Judge Tanya Chutkan Denies Transfer of Suit to Utah

“Conservation and Indian groups say the Antiquities Act doesn't allow Trump or any other president to revoke or shrink an existing monument.”

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n Read Past Editions of Bear Essentials at: http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

Documenting Bears Ears Controversy and Public Land Issues since July 2016

                                                                                                  

~~BEAR ESSENTIALS: Sept 22, 2018 ~~

Life in the West

Ø Make Sure You’re Registered to Vote!  If you’re new in town, or have changed houses, you need to fill out a registration form and get it to the court house PDQ.

   Call 678-2851 or 678-2474 if you need a form

 

Ø Meditations on Industrial Tourism

“Draw a boundary around a landscape, give it a national monument or park designation, and slap a name on it, and you’ve reduced something indescribable and wondrous to a brand, a slogan, a commodity to be marketed to the masses. Impose upon it a bunch of rules, entry fees, campgrounds, and designated trails, and you take away a freedom that is inherent to the place.”

Ø The Bureau of Land Management will hold 3 public meetings as part of the land use planning related to the new Bears Ears Monument.  See article on the right.

Ø One Source of Public Lands Funding Expires in Sept.

n  Deadline for Comments On Uranium Mill/ Energy Fuels Extended

  Addresses for writing Due Sept. 25

n  Get Phil Lyman Elected: You Can Help

n  Governor Herbert Believes Utah Can Better Manage Forests

n  Sec. Zinke to visit Zions Park 9/24/18  Looking at “Deferred Maintainance”

n  Should Las Vegas Pump Water It Doesn’t Own?

n  Political/ Geographic Divide Hurts Public Lands

“Casey Snider, Bishop's former legislative director and a volunteer firefighter, said status quo management of the forests will only lead to more catastrophic wildfires.

"When it comes to fire, you are either going to graze it, log it or burn it out on public lands," Snider said. "The idea that everything is fine if we just do nothing is completely, factually inaccurate."

n  Environmentalists Protest Sale of Public Lands for Oil/Gas Development

n  High Country News Questions SJC Promotion

n  Trump’s Attack on Public Lands Could Help Demo Mid Term Elections

n  Alliance for Better Utah Promoting Tourism

n  Alliance For a Better Utah Intent on Smearing San Juan County

Recent Letter Sent to a Constituent by Alliance for a Better Utah: 

Things are running amuck in San Juan County.

San Juan County Clerk, John David Nielson, doctored election documents to keep Navajo community leader and County Council candidate, Willie Grayeyes, off November’s ballot. This is another incident in a long line of either rampant incompetence or active voter suppression on the part of elections officials in San Juan County to keep the “good ol’ boys” of San Juan in power.

But Alliance for a Better Utah is fighting back.

We’re on the offensive, letting San Juan County voters know Willie’s story and the illegal activities of John David Nielson with targeted ads, but we need your help. We’re looking to raise $1,000 today to get ads placed and the word out. Will you help us reach our goal with a donation of $25, $50, $100 or whatever you can afford today?

For too long, underrepresented voices have been shut out of the conversation. It’s time to push back. With your support, we will continue to monitor the situation in San Juan County, call out officials for incompetent, immoral, and illegal behavior, and, if necessary, take legal action to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Your donations today will count toward our Political Accountability Fund goal of raising $10,000 by the end of the month and show the “good ol’ boys” of San Juan County and elsewhere that we’re fed up with politics as usual. Please give today.

Sincerely,

Chase Thomas
Executive Director

DONATE – Become a Sustaining Member and Help Better UTAH All Year Long »

Alliance for a Better Utah          (We all should write and protest)
P.O. Box 521847
Salt Lake City, UT 84152
801-893-ABU1 (2281)
info@betterutah.org

The World Needs More Cowboys! Video

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n Read Past Editions of Bear Essentials at: http://beyondthebears.blogspot.com/

Documenting Bears Ears Controversy and Public Land Issues since July 2016