Forum Discussion

rockhillmanor's avatar
Dec 05, 2017

2 National Monument Land Reduced by 'over' 1.1 million acres

So sad to see even yet more of our beautiful preserved land be taken away for unscrupulous reasons. :(

...Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments {reduced} by more than 1.1 million acres and more than 800,000 acres

...removes about 85 percent of the designation of Bears Ears and nearly 46 percent of that for Grand Staircase-Escalante, land that potentially could now be leased for energy exploration

Interestingly though is that the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 PROHIBITS reducing any federal site.

1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act. “Congress made very clear, as a matter of law, that they intend to delegate only that which has been expressly delegated in terms of management of federal lands,” he said — which would mean a president can establish a monument under the Antiquities Act but not “rescind or substantially reduce” a site,...

Sooo, HOW is this being allowed to take place if the FLPMA Act says it is not allowed?

  • Am I missing something here? The land just goes back to the state, doesn’t it? So instead of being controlled by the federal government it will be controlled by the state of Utah? So the people of Utah could turn the land into state parks?
  • {snip}
    With all the stupid kardashian and what ever celebrity is pregnant being spotlighted on the news now a days, important REAL news that is happening that affects all of us never reaches the public.

    I've been told that this forum has over 7,000 readers. We need to get the word out what is happening to our preserved lands we like to RV to. We need to stand together, speak out and stop this illegal practice per this Act:

    "1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act. “Congress made very clear, as a matter of law, that they intend to delegate only that which has been expressly delegated in terms of management of federal lands,” he said — which would mean a president can establish a monument under the Antiquities Act but

    not “rescind or substantially reduce” a site,...

  • I believe the mining companies want the Bears Ears region for uranium and the Grand Staircase-Escalante for it’s coal. Whether it’s economically feasible at this time to mine either is questionable right now, but that can change. I doubt if Utah residents will see much, if any money out of the mining since they probably don’t own the mining rights. How much fracking will take place? I have no idea. In my mind fracking is incredibly irresponsible.
    It would be interesting to see how much cash Utah’s politicians have taken out of the oil/gas/mining companies.
  • Apparently, #42 created Grand Staircase to avoid possible coal finds being exploited. Not the case with #44 on Bears Ear, no indicated resources, and bypassed normal open review periods for local/regional comments. This will likely be in court still when most of us are long gone.
  • Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921 in office) was 50+ years before the 1976 act. His actions maybe one reason why the act was needed. How many reductions since the act was passed?
  • Sometimes there are reasons that aren't clear at the time.
  • Might be a good thing if it frees up more resources for the more heavily visited parks.
  • Been reading on this a bit. According to Nat Geographic there have been about 20 cases of National monuments being reduced in size. The biggest being Woodrow Wilson taking 600,000+ Acres out of Mount olympus. Its not unheard of.