Come February, will we have two national monuments in southern Utah, or five?
Depends on whom you ask. It likely will take several years to churn through lawsuits surrounding President Trump’s use of the Antiquities Act to create new national monuments out of existing ones.
If you run a hotel in San Juan County, are you telling customers you’re the best place to stay to see the Bears Ears National Monument, or the Shash Jaá National Monument? Either way you choose, it may cost you customers who think it should go the other way.
From a legal standpoint, it’s looking like five will be the number over the short term. The Indian tribes and environmental groups suing to reverse Trump’s Monday proclamations so far haven’t asked for emergency injunctive relief that would prevent Trump’s plan from taking effect on Feb. 2. They believe the law is with them, but that doesn’t mean they can demonstrate imminent harm required to stop it from taking effect while it’s in court.
In the interim, work will begin on new management plans for the five new monuments. Presumably, Utah tourism officials — who work for Gov. Gary Herbert, one of the people cheering Trump on at Utah’s Capitol Monday — will begin marketing the new monuments.
Already Utah’s official state website, visitutah.com has new notes on its Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante pages indicating changes are coming.
“The area is still open to visitors,” say the notes.
Yes, it’s come to that. The state has to tell people our public lands are still public.
Meanwhile, the outdoor industry (remember them?) isn’t done with this fight. Patagonia, the highly visible clothing manufacturer, is carrying on an ad blitz to keep the memory of Bears Ears monument alive and tie its demise to an unpopular president.
And the five sovereign Indian nations that came together in unprecedented fashion behind creation of Bears Ears National Monument will continue to command headlines, reminding people of the missed opportunity to repair relationships with Native Americans.
But if anyone thinks all this will discourage people from coming, no such luck. They are coming, and we are not ready. Specifically, not enough has been done to protect the very resources that caused presidents to invoke the Antiquities Act in the first place.
In all the back and forth and claims and counterclaims, there has been one narrow area of agreement on all sides: These lands contain important archeological resources that are not adequately protected for future generations.
And on that point, the president’s proclamation on Bears Ears is discouraging:
“Given the nature of the objects identified on the lands reserved by [Obama’s proclamation], the lack of a threat of damage or destruction to many of those objects, and the protection for those objects already provided by existing law and governing land-use plans, I find that the area of Federal land reserved in the Bears Ears National Monument … is not confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of those objects.”
“ … lack of threat of damage or destruction … ”? The president couldn’t be any more wrong about that if he had tweeted it.
If the federal government won’t act, Utahns must do whatever is legally possible to stop the destruction of history on these lands, whatever we’re calling them.
