by Tim Peterson, Utah Wildlands Director
On December 28, 2016, President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah. He did so with the backing of the five tribes of the Bear Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, 25 regional tribes, the National Congress of American Indians, the Utah Democratic Caucus in the state legislature, conservation groups, outdoor industry companies, recreationists, and hundreds of thousands of petition signers from around the world.
The new monument is the first of its kind, allowing for collaborative management between tribes and federal land managers. This new paradigm is not only a win for tribal sovereignty, it will allow western science and Native American traditional knowledge to blend in entirely new ways to benefit both the land and people. Traditional knowledge may be a new term to most, but it embodies the indigenous worldview, one in which the relationships between humans and the natural world are not separate, but enjoined in an affiliation of reverence, respect, and reciprocity.
Some anti-public lands politicians including Utah’s governor and congressional delegation opposed the designation, shedding crocodile tears over a “flawed process” that took “unilateral action” constituting a “land grab.” But their gnashing of teeth and rending of garments is not unique to Bears Ears – Utah politicians opposed the creation of Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, and Arches national parks – all of which were created under the same authority granted to presidents under the Antiquities Act of 1906, just like Bears Ears.
These same politicians will try their best to undo Bears Ears National Monument, but their path is not a straightforward one. We’ll be asking for your help to defend Bears Ears in the coming months.
In the meantime, President Obama protected an area smaller than the tribes requested, but larger than Representative Rob Bishop proposed in his failed Utah Public Lands Initiative. Many are wondering: what got protected and what was left out of the new national monument?
The monument spans 1.35 million acres, encompassing from north to south:
Lockhart Basin and Indian Creek adjacent to Canyonlands National Park on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands; Shay Mountain, Mt. Linnaeus and Bob Park Peak in the Abajo Mountains (including the wild canyons draining their western slopes); Upper Allen Canyon, Cottonwood Wash, Elk and Chippean Ridges, Dry Mesa, and Notch, Hammond, Arch and Dark canyons, along with the Bears Ears themselves on national forest lands.
Farther south in the monument are Cheese and Raisins, Comb Ridge and Comb Wash, Cottonwood Canyon, and areas immediately adjacent to Bluff including Sand Island and the San Juan River corridor from east of town to San Juan Hill where the river bisects Comb Ridge. Valley of the Gods, Cedar Mesa, Polly Mesa, Grand Gulch, the Red House Cliffs, and Mikes Canyon are all included. An annex to the west includes Moqui and Cedar Canyons and Mancos Mesa adjacent to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Mossback Butte, Tables of the Sun, Fry Canyon and the White Canyon complex are all included, as is the Dark Canyon Plateau, Bowdie Canyon, and Beef Basin.
Places left out of the monument that were proposed by tribes include Shafer Basin (site of Thelma and Louise Point where a classic Ford Thunderbird and two dummies took a plunge to the Colorado River in the 1991 film), the majority of Hatch and Harts Points (site of a proposed state land exchange and potash and fossil fuel mining), and upper Harts Draw and Shay Mesa on BLM lands.
On national forest lands, the primary peaks of the Abajos were excluded, including North, Horsehead, and Twin peaks, Jackson Ridge, Abajo Peak, and South Peak. Johnson and Recapture Creek canyons were also excluded. Lower Allen Canyon and the Beehives on BLM land adjacent to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s allotments were excluded. Farther south, Black Mesa was excluded, as was a portion of Bluff Bench, Chimney Rocks, and Recapture Pocket.
Farther west, southern Lime Ridge was excluded, as was the entirety of Raplee Ridge, the Sugarloaf, and an abandoned meander of the San Juan River. The river corridor from Chinle Wash to past the town of Mexican Hat was also excluded. The monument did not include any of the portion of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that was proposed by tribes. Excluded in this decision were the lower San Juan River and the San Juan’s confluence with the Colorado, though those lands are already managed by the National Park Service. The monument did not include Lake Canyon, Steer Pasture Canyon, and the flats along Highway 276 west of Clay Hills. Red and Blue canyons were excluded, along with Wingate Mesa. Excluded from the new monument was the site of the Daneros uranium mine, which is undergoing analysis for permit expansion.
All in all, Bears Ears National Monument is not only a landmark in American history for its advancement of Native American sovereignty, it protects important cultural sites, amazing geology, stunning scenery, world-class paleontological resources, and treasured recreation sites for future generations. For those lands excluded from the monument, the Grand Canyon Trust and others who care about the future of these lands will continue to work to see them protected, and to stop harmful resource development like the proliferation of new off-roading, fossil fuel extraction, and uranium and potash mining.
The span of history recorded and protected at Bears Ears is unmatched anywhere in the world, and this monument has something for everyone. There is still much to be discovered here, and there are so many stories to be told – Native American stories, LDS pioneer stories, ecological and paleontological stories, even stories of the Cold War and the Atomic Age. All these stories can enrich the lives of Utahns, Americans, and all citizens of the world who visit Bears Ears. We’ll see you there!
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