FREE NEWS LINKS
HOME SEARCH
Updates & changes ongoing ....
---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are up to date.
Also see: Environment; Bears Ears National Monument;
Jump to: 2017; 2018; 2019; 2020;
Undated: The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) is a United States national monument that originally designated 1,880,461 acres (7,610 km2)[1] of protected land in southern Utah in 1996. The monument's size was later reduced by a succeeding presidential proclamation in 2017. The land is among the most remote in the country; it was the last to be mapped in the contiguous United States.[3]
There are three main regions: the Grand Staircase, the Kaiparowits Plateau, and the Canyons of the Escalante (Escalante River). All regions are administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as part of the National Conservation Lands system. President Bill Clinton designated the area as a national monument in 1996 using his authority under the Antiquities Act. Grand Staircase-Escalante is the largest national monument managed by the BLM.
On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered that the monument's size be reduced by nearly 47 percent to 1,003,863 acres (4,062 km2),[3] with the remainder broken up into three separate areas, two of which border one another along the Paria River.[4][5] Conservation, angling, hunting, and outdoor recreation groups have filed suit to block any reduction in the national monument, arguing that the president has no legal authority to materially shrink a national monument.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Staircase-Escalante_National_Monument
-- 2017 --
Back to top
August 24: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended Thursday that President Trump alter at least three national monuments established by his immediate predecessors, including two in Utah, a move expected to reshape federal land and water protections and certain to trigger major legal fights.
In a report Zinke submitted to the White House, the secretary recommended reducing the size of Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, as well as Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, according to multiple individuals briefed on the decision.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/24/interior-secretary-recommends-trump-alter-a-handful-of-national-monuments-but-declines-to-reveal-which-ones/?utm_term=.4720d812aff5
December 4: Trump Slashes Size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/trump-bears-ears.html
December 4: What Trump’s Shrinking of National Monuments Actually Means
The president announced reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante, but the actual picture on the ground remains highly uncertain.
“Some people think that the natural resources should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” Trump said at Utah’s domed State Capitol. “And guess what: They’re wrong.”
Back to top
The reductions are the culmination of a wide-ranging Interior Department review of recent monument designations and a highly symbolic salvo in a larger campaign to reverse Obama-era public land policies. The Trump administration’s recent edicts—opening new mineral and oil and gas leasing opportunities in protected lands, easing drilling regulations, and rolling back habitat protections for endangered species—have met with furious opposition from conservation groups, outdoor tourism advocates, and Democratic lawmakers.
What’s next for the two monuments? First up: litigation. The 1906 Antiquities Act gives presidents broad discretion to protect “historic landmarks … and other objects of historic or scientific interest,” without any input from Congress. There is no language in the law, however, granting presidents the power to rescind or cut them. Presidents have made minor adjustments to monument boundaries and one major reduction: in 1915, Woodrow Wilson reduced Mount Olympus National Monument almost by half. None of those excisions have occurred in the last 50 years, however, and none have ever been tested in court.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/trump-shrinks-bears-ears-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monuments/
-- 2018 --
Back to top
September 24: Bears Ears, Grand Staircase lawsuits will stay in D.C., as judge rejects Trump administration motion to move them to Utah
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ruled Monday that the suits, filed by environmental groups and tribes that say Trump didn’t have the authority to diminish the monuments' footprint, should be heard in federal court in Washington.
Neda Culver ..."National monuments belong to all Americans and not just individual states or the special interest groups that would exploit them for mining, drilling and development,” Culver said.
“In attempting to slash vast swaths of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, Trump has not only flaunted 112 years of conservation history, he has acted to revoke protections for culturally, historically and archaeologically significant national treasures and exceeded his authority under the U.S. Constitution and the Antiquities Act of 1906. We look forward to proving that in court.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/09/24/bears-ears-grand/
October 12: Utah files to support Trump’s diminished national monuments
Worried that the original monument designation may stand, Utah wants to jump into the fray.
https://www.hcn.org/articles/utah-files-to-support-trumps-diminished-national-monuments
Back to top
December 4: One Year After Trump Shrank Two Utah Monuments, More Than Half a Million Comments Weigh in on Future Plans
While both monuments have faced some local opposition, they're generally supported by environmental groups, tribes, and scientists. Trump's decision to downsize the monuments last year followed a review of 27 monuments by the Department of the Interior (DOI), during which the DOI received more than a million comments, at least 99 percent of which opposed weakening monument protections.
"These hasty plans represent an abrupt and drastic reversal of 22 years of conservation management," Nicole Croft, executive director of Grand Staircase–Escalante Partners, said in a statement. "They do not represent thoughtful, responsible stewardship, but rather a pillaging of our national resources."
Advocacy groups say the half million comments on the new monument plans represent an unprecedented show of interest. "The number of public comments submitted to the BLM and Forest Service indicate strong support for national monuments and public lands across the United States," Mark Maryboy of Utah Diné Bikéyah, a grassroots Native American organization, said in a statement. "The people have spoken and we all want Bears Ears protections restored."
https://psmag.com/news/one-year-after-trump-shrank-two-utah-monuments-more-than-half-a-million-comments-weigh-in-on-future-plans
December 31: Trump's decision to shrink size of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument could impact hundreds of bee species
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a federally protected area found in central southern Utah. It is about 1.9 million acres and one of the top locations for bee diversity in the United States.
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/trumps-decision-to-shrink-size-of-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-could-impact-hundreds-of-bee-species/70007004
-- 2019 --
Back to top
January 15: A diminished monument
Trump cut Grand Staircase-Escalante nearly in half to spur a mining boom. But those lost protections may not yield big profits.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/environment/will-anyone-mine-after-grand-staircase-escalante-reduction-by-trump/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.89850bafb4b4
March 4: The Theft of Grand Staircase–Escalante
In 2017, the Trump administration announced that it was shrinking the iconic Utah national monument by nearly 50 percent. Leath Tonino devised a sketchy 200-mile solo desert trek, following the path of the legendary cartographer who literally put these contentious canyons on the map.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2391192/grand-staircase-escalante-trump
-- 2020 --
Back to top
Webpage visitor counts provided by
