Interior chief tours controversial Utah monument

BLANDING, Utah — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke described himself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican as he spoke to the media while standing on the edge of the Butler Wash Overlook Trail in Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument on Monday.

Zinke said that as a Roosevelt Republican and a Montanan, public lands are an important issue to him.

His visit was prompted by an April 26 executive order by President Donald Trump asking the Interior secretary to review all national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act since 1996 that are over 100,000 acres. The order includes a number of monuments in the Southwest, including Canyons of the Ancients in the Four Corners area and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona.

But Bears Ears National Monument, which has become a flash point in the federal-land debate, has been at the top of the list.

In December, then-President Barack Obama designated the region, which is named for two prominent buttes that resemble bears’ ears, as a national monument.

While flying over the monument Monday morning, Tim Peterson, the Utah Wildlands program director for the non-profit conservation and advo-

cacy group Grand Canyon Trust, said five tribes have the same name for the formation: Bears Ears.

“It really has everything that the Antiquities Act was meant to protect,” Peterson said.

But the use of the Antiquities Act to create the monument has been called government overreach by some Utah officials.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said the Bears Ears National Monument as well as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument near Kanab were controversial designations. He said some residents near Grand Staircase-Escalante remain bitter about its 1996 creation and its expansive size.

Those sentiments were echoed Monday in southeastern Utah. As San Juan County Commission Chairman Bruce Adams waited for Zinke’s arrival outside the Blanding airport, he wore a baseball hat that said “Make San Juan County Great Again.”

To Adams, one thing standing in the way of making American great again is Obama’s designation of Bears Ears, which he said could negatively affect the county’s oil, gas and other extraction-related industries.

Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes said Zinke’s visit to the small communities provides residents with an opportunity to share their views.

Hughes said he met with Zinke on Sunday at the state Capitol.

Hughes said a significant concern is that the new national monument means restricted access to more than 1.3 million acres. But Hughes said there is still a “strong desire and I think a noble goal to be good stewards of the land.”

Kenneth Maryboy, the Mexican Water, Utah, Navajo chapter president, said that thousands of archaeological sites have been looted and vandalized and need to be protected.

Zinke said that much of the anger in the United States today is the result of a feeling that local voices are not being heard by policymakers.

“We’re the collaborative department,” he said of the Department of the Interior. “We want to work with local communities. We want to solve problems rather than create them. We want to be advocates rather than adversary.

“We’re the collaborative department. We want to work with local communities. We want to solve problems rather than create them.”

When you see a BLM truck out there, I want to make sure that the public views that BLM truck as a land manager, someone to be respected. When they see a park ranger, I want to make sure their kids look up and say, ‘You know what, I want to be a park ranger.’ You know a lot of that is restoring trust.”

Of Bears Ears, Zinke said, “The trip today verified that it is drop-dead gorgeous, no question about it.”

The question, Zinke said, is about how best to preserve the landscape and cultural heritage of the Bears Ears region.

Despite protesters gathered at the airport and trailhead, Zinke chose not to have a public forum. He said accepting comments at regulations.gov gives everyone a voice.

Hannah Grover covers government for the Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4652.