Reckless Shrinking Of Utah National Monuments

This was written about on Utah News Dispatch, but I wanted to draw attention to some of the issues facing our National Monuments, Parks, and Forests. Utah News Dispatch does a good job of covering an angle about Trump and Governor Spencer Cox reversing the national monument status for much of the land in Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The national monument status was reversed, slashing Bears Ears down to about 121,000 acres from its original 1.35 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante down to about 182,000 acres from nearly 1.9 million acres. Native American tribes are obviously opposed... Gillard, a descendant of the Cedar Band of Paiutes, said Tuesday: “But what about our tribal voices? We have constituents and members who are citizens of the state of Utah. Are their voices not equal to those of other citizens that live in the state?”

This is where we are, unfortunately. The Republicans remain predictably consistent in slashing public land protections.