Sunrise over Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah                                         (Mike Painter)
 

June 29, 2017

Dear CalUWild friends and supporters—

Our last couple of Monthly Updates have focused heavily on the national monument review that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was ordered to undertake. The situation has become extremely complex, so please bear with us as we try to untangle the mess a bit. It will be the only topic addressed in this Update.

The review and recommendations already resulting from it are the broadest and most serious attacks on public lands we’ve seen in many years—an attack on one monument is an attack on them all. So if you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

It being the season for summertime reading, we’ve included many links, in both Items 1 & 2.
 

Thanks for your interest and involvement,
Mike
 

IN UTAH & ELSEWHERE
1.   Interior Secretary Zinke Issues Preliminary Bears Ears Report;
          Recommends Shrinking the Monument and
          Extends Comment Period.
          Comments Needed on All Monuments
          DEADLINE: July 10
          (ACTION ITEM)

IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
2.   Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

IN UTAH
1.   Interior Secretary Zinke Issues Preliminary Bears Ears Report;
          Recommends Shrinking the Monument and
          Extends Comment Period.
          Comments Needed on All Monuments
          DEADLINE: July 10
          (ACTION ITEM)

As we reported in our last two Updates (April, May), the administration issued an executive order instructing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to undertake a review of more than 25 national monuments designated since 1996. He was given 45 days to issue recommendations regarding the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah and 120 days for the others. The Interior Department then opened a public comment period for all of them. The Department, however, is not undertaking the review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which has procedural guidelines for how comments are to be tabulated and analyzed. As you’ll see below, it is becoming more and more difficult to believe that the public comment period is anything other than just for show.

Two weeks ago Mr. Zinke issued a preliminary report on Bears Ears, and other information has come out from the Interior Department that is causing us to have to change our approach to the review. Yet it is important to keep the pressure up, by submitting comments to the department, as the public is able to read them online. This will provide support for the litigation that is sure to follow any formal attempt at revocation or boundary change. (Although presidents have the authority to designate monuments, the Antiquities Act does not give them the power to modify or de-designate them. This has not been tested in court, though … yet. If you are interested in a readable paper by four law professors from the U of Colorado, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, discussing the applicable law, click here.)

Some of the larger conservation groups have analyzed the comments submitted online, finding that over 90% support leaving all the monuments alone.

Secty. Zinke’s report recommends shrinking the monument, though he stopped short of outright de-designating it.

The report made four major points, listed below, along with responses to each, in italics. (The report can be read and/or downloaded here, free registration or sign-in required.)

1.) The boundaries of Bears Ears should be adjusted to be consistent with the intent of the Antiquities Act (i.e., the smallest area necessary to protect the objects of interest);

2.) Congress should authorize tribal co-management of designated cultural areas;

3.) Congress should designate selected areas within the current monument as national conservation or recreation areas;

4.) Congress should clarify the intent of management practices of wilderness or wilderness study areas (WSAs) within a monument.

Mr. Zinke announced he would wait before issuing final recommendations on Bears Ears until after the comment period for the other monuments on the list closes on July 10. Further comments on Bears Ears will now be accepted until that date.

As mentioned above, other aspects of the commenting process have also come to light, calling into question the administration’s interest in broad public participation or accountability. For example:

 

SO, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

If you previously submitted a comment specific to Bears Ears on the regulations.gov website …

… there is no need to resubmit it.

It would be a good idea, however, to submit an additional comment in response to one or more of the four recommendations above, following the instructions on the page. Then, click on the button requesting that they send you a confirmation email. You will also receive a confirmation number, which you may use to check on the status of your comment. Please forward the entire email you receive to SUWA at issues-action@suwa.org, so they can keep an accurate count.

The first point to make in any comment is that the administration has no authority under the law to make any modification to a monument designated by a president. Only Congress may do that.

If you submit multiple comments from the same email address, please be sure you receive a separate confirmation number for each comment. (There were reports that the site was not accepting such multiple comments, but when I tried, things functioned properly.)
 

If you previously submitted a comment via another organization’s website (SUWA, Sierra Club, Bears Ears Coalition, Monuments for All, etc.) …

… please resubmit it via the regulations.gov website.

Again, click on the button requesting a confirmation email, and forward that entire email to SUWA at issues-action@suwa.org.
 

If you have NOT previously submitted any comment on Bears Ears …

… please submit one via the regulations.gov website. Use the four talking points above as well as those discussed in Item 1 of the May Update.

Please note: There is a 5,000-character limit for comments pasted into the text window on the webpage. You may upload attachments, so maybe send a picture (or a document with more characters?).
 

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

The other monument squarely in the crosshairs of Mr. Zinke and his Utah delegation allies is the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM). Utah politicians have considered it a thorn in their side since the day it was designated by Pres. Bill Clinton in 1996. CalUWild has a special connection to GSENM, as we founded the organization in response to the development of the monument’s general management plan in 1997, 20 years ago.

Please submit a separate comment regarding GSENM to the regulations.gov website with a follow-up copy to SUWA, using the procedure outlined above.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance has sent out the following message, with some suggested talking points:

Secty. Zinke commented, regarding Upper Missouri Breaks in Montana, another of the monuments under review, that he’d rather not “open up a wound” there (see next section). This same logic applies just as forcefully to GSENM. Although there was widespread opposition to GSENM initially, much of that has disappeared as the local economies in Kane and Garfield counties have by all measures improved greatly. Most people there, and in Utah as a whole, now favor the monument, despite what some of their politicians are saying. There is no need to open a wound that is healed (or healing).

The Deseret News reported that the Interior Department requested Kane and Garfield counties to draw maps with revised boundaries for Secty. Zinke’s recommendation. There was no mention made of public input to that process.
 

Other Monuments

The Billings (Montana) Gazette reports: Upper Missouri Breaks will keep its national monument status, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says. Mr. Zinke commented after speaking at the Western Governors’ Association meeting: “’My likely recommendation will be to leave the Missouri Breaks as is,’ Zinke said. ‘I think it’s settled to a degree that I would rather not open up a wound that has been healed.’”

Mr. Zinke has also indicated that Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado is likely not to be subject to changes, as is Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, despite some political opposition there. See, for example, this article: ‘Spiteful and petty’: Maine governor bans signs to Obama-designated monument.

If you have a specific interest in any of these three monuments, by all means, submit a comment in support anyway.

In California, we are especially concerned with the Mojave Trails, Giant Sequoia, and Berryessa Snow Mountain monuments, so please consider submitting separate comments on those.

Mr. Zinke has also just announced that he will visit Gold Butte and Basin & Range national monuments in Nevada in July. Gold Butte is of special concern because it is adjacent to the Cliven Bundy ranch, site of the armed standoff in 2014, and there has been vocal opposition from people to whom Secty. Zinke might be sympathetic.

Space limitations here prevent providing detailed information regarding all the monuments on the “hit list.” However, most of them have “Friends Groups” that support them in various ways. Look for information on their websites regarding comments specific to their monument. Our friends at The Wilderness Society’s BLM Action Center provided us with a list of the monuments and links to their associated Friends Groups.

You can also find more information at monumentsforall.org.
 

What else?

Encourage your family and friends to submit comments.

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

Post your thoughts and relevant articles on Facebook or Twitter—these are increasingly important means of communication.

Contact your senators and congressmen/women, letting them know your concerns about the monuments review. Encourage them to cosponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act if they haven’t, and thank them if they have. (Cosponsorship creates a pool of people who are willing to publicly defend areas in the bill against threats that might arise, such as bad legislation, threatened oil leases by the BLM, bad land exchanges, etc.)

House cosponsors from California in addition to chief sponsor Rep. Alan Lowenthal are:

Since our last Update, John Garamendi (D-3) has signed on. If you live in his district, please contact his office to say Thank You!

Congress will be on recess for the week of the 4th of July, as well as the month of August. These are not vacations, but times to be working in-district, directly with constituents. Get office meetings set up or attend townhall meetings (with those reps brave enough to still hold them).
 

Press Coverage

There has been an incredible amount written about the monument review. Here is just a sampling.

Utah Monuments

In General

 

IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
2.   Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest

If a link is broken or otherwise inaccessible, please send me an email, and I’ll fix it or send you a PDF copy. As always, inclusion of an item in this section does not imply agreement with the viewpoint expressed.

Public Lands & Politicians

Other News

Video Links

 
 
 
 
 

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