Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
US plan for more Bears Ears cuts elicits outcry from critics
WASHINGTON — Nearly two years after dramatically shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, the Trump administration finalized a management plan Friday that would allow trees to be plowed down using heavy chains, as well as utility lines and more ranching, in the smaller area that is still preserved.
The new plan for the nearly 202,000-acre expanse of public land, which removes five Native American tribes from the management board of a monument they fought to designate, drew protest from conservation and tribal groups.
But officials from the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service who jointly manage the monument said in a statement that it balanced the region’s economic interests against the need to safeguard it.
“These plans will provide a blueprint to protect the awe-inspiring natural and cultural resources that make this monument nationally significant, while enhancing recreational opportunities and ensuring access to traditional uses,” said Ed Roberson, Utah state director for the Bureau of Land Management, a division of the Interior Department.
The administration spent months soliciting input on its plans to expand energy extraction and other activities on two areas in southern Utah that were restricted under previous presidents. In addition to Bears Ears, which was established by President Barack Obama, President Donald Trump cut the neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, established by President Bill Clinton in 1996, nearly in half.
Plans to revise Grand Staircase-Escalante’s management are stalled because the Government Accountability Office is investigating whether Interior Department officials’ move to open up lands that previously excluded oil, gas and coal extraction broke federal spending law.
In addition, conservationists argued in a statement, the newly released plan for Bears Ears would be “rendered entirely null and void if environmental groups and Native American tribes win the legal battle” over Trump’s decision to carve off 1.1 million acres — 85% — of Bears Ears’ original designation.
A coalition of groups sued the administration after Trump traveled to Salt Lake City to make the announcement in 2017.
A federal judge is considering Justice Department motions to dismiss two lawsuits challenging the decisions to shrink both monuments. The question of whether the Antiquities Act allows a president to essentially rescind monument designations made by a predecessor hinges on the judge’s ruling.
The final management plan and environmental impact statement issued Friday apply to Bears Ears’ Indian Creek and Shash Jaa units, which have a higher level of protection than the 1.1 million acres Trump removed from the monument.
One of the most controversial aspects of the new plan — “chaining” — angered conservationists. It involves a process in which two heavy mechanized vehicles drag a thick anchor chain across forest, leveling trees and shrubs.
The new plan posed chaining as a prevention measure that clears the forest of fuel that feeds wildfires. But it is often used as a way to open rugged terrain for cattle grazing favored by ranchers in Utah who opposed the Bears Ears designation.