Ever since President Trump scaled back Bears Ears and Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monuments, many have wondered what comes next. Well, the U.S. Interior Department finalized plans to allow energy companies to use these public lands for extraction. The Trump administration will allow drilling, mining, and grazing where it was previously not allowed under the National Monument’s management plans.
According to the plan, most of Bears Ears and almost 1-million acres in and around Grand Staircase will be open to grazing. The BLM will also make two new backcountry routes in Grand Staircase open to off-road vehicles.
Reaction from conservation groups has been swift and condemning.
“This sellout to big oil firms, which comes after the Trump administration slashed the size of the two monuments in late 2017, is more evidence of extremely tight ties between U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and industry,” said Alan Zibel, Research Director of Public Citizen’s Corporate Presidency Project.
“Millions in spending on lobbying and close personal ties between lobbyists and the Trump Interior Department have proven devastating for America’s public lands and an outright bonanza for oil and gas interests. (Interior Secretary) Bernhardt has consistently favored industry over conservation interests and public health. Rather than listen to the millions of Americans who want to preserve these precious national monuments, the Interior Department consistently chooses to sell off our public lands to the highest bidder. Opening these special areas to exploitation threatens cultural and natural resources that never can be replaced.”
Locally, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance also spoke against the BLM’s decision.
“We’re disappointed but not surprised that the BLM has finalized terrible management plan for what remains of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments. These plans represent the lowest common denominator for BLM stewardship of the irreplaceable cultural, paleontological, and biological resources on these awe-inspiring public lands. The plans also set the stage for destructive chaining of native vegetation, unmanageable recreation, and increased off-road vehicle use,” said Neal Clark, Wildlands Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
“Our members and the public should rest assured that these management plans will not be the final chapter for the management of these remarkable public lands. We are confident that the lawsuits challenging President Trump’s unlawful attack of the monuments will succeed and these plans, which are the fruit of Trump’s poisonous actions, will be undone,” said Stephen Bloch, Legal Director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
“At Grand Staircase, Trump’s plan openly admits that it will result in the destruction of countless paleontological, cultural and ecological resources that form the backbone of why this Monument was established in the first place,” said Bloch. “One of the wildest landscapes in the lower forty-eight states will be lost if these plans are carried into action over the next few years.”
“At Bears Ears, we expect that the litigation brought by Native American tribes, conservation and scientific organization, and businesses challenging Trump’s unlawful attack on this monument will succeed and the management plan will be thrown out,” said Clark.