More than a year after President Donald Trump slashed southern Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, the Interior Department has publicly identified the 15 people it selected for the advisory committee that will provide guidance on managing the 200,000-acre reserve in San Juan County.
Missing on the panel is anyone who championed Bears Ears’ original designation in 2016 or opposed Trump’s decision a year later to cut it by 85 percent, leaving out Cedar Mesa, Elk Ridge, Grand Gulch and many other places that five tribes wanted protected when they urged President Barack Obama to declare a massive monument.
Meanwhile, the panel is stacked with staunch monument foes, starting with County Commissioner Bruce Adams, former Commissioner Rebecca Benally’s son Ryan and ranchers Gail Johnson and Zeb Dalton...