The Trump administration is proposing to dispose of federal land in southern Utah that was protected within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument until its boundary was redrawn by the Interior Department earlier this year.
The proposal to possibly sell more than a dozen parcels amounting to 1,600 acres came to light Wednesday when the Bureau of Land Management released a plan to manage two national monuments that were dramatically reduced by the administration, Grand Staircase and Bears Ears, which is also in Utah. That would appear to directly contradict Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s assurance at his Senate confirmation hearing last year that “I am absolutely against transfer or sale of public land.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said Thursday that “the secretary still opposes the sale or transfer of federal land, particularly those ...lands now excluded from the monument." In her email, Swift said the BLM is required by law to identify federal property suitable for disposal as part of its land use planning. “It is the secretary’s preference that land remain under federal ownership.”
Opponents disputed Swift’s contention that identifying the land was legally required. “No, it’s absolutely not required by law,” said Nada Culver, senior counsel for the Wilderness Society, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting wildlands. Under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the land should be retained unless disposing it is in the national interest...