New Utah monument high in ecological value

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CAP officials said they launched the Conservation Science Partners analysis to better document the environmental value of the new national monument. They did so after Gov. Gary Herbert and other Utah Republicans started lobbying President Donald Trump to rescind the monument or significantly shrink its boundaries.

“This was an opportunity to get past some of the rhetoric and focus on the science,” said Kate Kelly, director of public lands for the Center for American Progress.

Sparking a raging debate

Bears Ears is part of a larger, raging debate over federal land management nationwide. Many state lawmakers and county officials chafe at the federal government’s large landholdings in the West and President Barack Obama’s creation of new national monuments. Some are lobbying Congress to transfer swaths of federal land to state ownership, in part to facilitate new economic development.

Supporters of national monuments take an opposite view. They say that, even under government ownership, federal lands in the West are being fragmented by new roads and oil and gas rigs, and are calling for stronger conservation measures to protect them.

In a report last year, CAP analyzed the factors altering intact landscapes across public and private lands. The report, “Disappearing West,” concluded that new housing and energy developments were transforming supposedly protected areas, with an area the size of a football field affected every 2.5 minutes.

Should it survive a challenge, the national monument status of Bears Ears will allow continued livestock grazing, but prevent new mining and energy development on its 1.35 million acres. That could be a sore point for affected industries, since the Conservation Science Partners analysis prepared shows that Bears Ears includes sizable deposits of uranium, as well as copper and vanadium, an additive in steel making. The monument also is in the mid-range of comparable federal lands for potential oil and gas deposits, according to a 2009 study of potential resources in the region.

In a recent interview with McClatchy, Utah Gov. Herbert rejected suggestions that he wanted to rescind Bears Ears’ monument status so it again could be used for mineral and energy development. “It is a red herring to think that if you rescind the monument you open it up to oil and gas drilling,” he said, adding that Obama had disregarded the views of Utah’s elected leaders in designating the new monument.

Yet conservationists note that, before Obama’s decision, at least one oil company — Houston-based EOG Resources, formerly part of the Enron Corp. — was exploring for oil and gas. Last May, the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining approved EOG’s proposal to drill on state trust lands near Bluff, Utah, that are now part of the monument.

“There’s a good amount of resources under there,” said Rowland of CAP. “That could be a reason that some people want the monument status of Bears Ears to be eliminated.”

Standout natural features

According to the Conservation Science Partners analysis, Bears Ears stands out for several natural features. The monument has darker night skies — essential for star gazing — than the seven other national parks the firm studied. There are no major cities or towns near Bears Ears, which is why stargazers see much less light pollution than what they experience at Arches, Grand Canyon and Yosemite national parks.

Bears Ears also scored high on “ecological intactness” and “ecological connectivity,” a measure of whether corridors exist that wildlife can use to migrate to and from nearby parks and preserves. “The value of a place that’s so intact and undisturbed can’t be overstated,” said the Center for American Progress’ Kelly.

Brett Dickson, president and chief scientist at Conservation Science Partners, based in Truckee, Calif., said a number of species, including mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, black bears and mountain lions, benefit from the area’s relatively pristine environment.

The Trump administration hasn’t yet announced a decision on whether it will seek to revoke the monument status of Bears Ears. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has pledged to Utah lawmakers he will make a personal visit to the area, and a decision is expected after that trip.

STUART LEAVENWORTH/MCCLATCHY/TNS Preston Johnson rides his horse in search of stray cattle in the new Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah in March. Johnson’s family has grazed cattle on this federal land for generations, and they’re worried that they will eventually lose their grazing allotments with the designation of the new national monument.

Sandy Johnson, a cattle rancher, stands on the lip of the canyon where his family brands calves each year in the Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah. Johnson’s family has been ranching on federal land since the early 20th century. Federal officials have told him he can continue grazing on the land with the designation of the new national monument, but he is doubtful that promise will hold.

Jonah Yellowman, a Navajo elder, surveys a bluff in the new Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah on March 6, 2017. He and other Native Americans lobbied the Obama administration to designate the area as a national monument to better protect rock carvings and other antiquities in the area.