Reports: Bears Ears to be cut by 85 percent, Grand Staircase by half

Deseret News ^ | 11/30/17 | Lisa Riley Roche

[markomalley]

President Donald Trump intends to reduce the size of Bears Ears National Monument by nearly 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by almost half, according to news reports Thursday.

Leaked documents obtained by the Associated Press show the total amount of land in the two monuments would drop from more than 3.2 million acres to about 1.2 million acres.

The same reductions were reported by the Washington Post, which cited unnamed "individuals briefed on the matter," cautioning that there could be some changes before Trump officially announces the new boundaries when he visits Salt Lake City on Monday.

Heather Swift, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, told the Deseret News, "The Post has very old and outdated information." But she did not elaborate, saying she had "no further announcement at this time."

Maps of the two reduced monuments were provided to the Deseret News by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. The group said they are U.S. Department of the Interior maps but declined to say how they were obtained.

[Tax-chick]

... the total amount of land in the two monuments would drop from more than 3.2 million acres to about 1.2 million acres.

Wow. That's like the whole U.S. just being paved over, man.

[Mr Rogers]

I’d prefer to see them eliminated, but I’ll take what we can get.

[Sacajaweau]

There need to be a lot more reductions...like where the dumb owl was...the frog was....the snail darter...

[sparklite2]

Making citizens’ land available to citizens ....
Dilly Dilly !

[rktman]

Ecowankers heads blowed up real good about this. Or, WINNING! Boo yah!

[American in Israel]

2,ooo,ooo less acres to pay for upkeep and rangers, and ecologists. I like it.

[Vendome]

Animal cruelty.

Someone should be shot, then hanged...

[x]

Just make sure the bear is really sedated first ...

[OldMissileer]

The Grand Staircase needs to be eliminated as Bill Clinton created it to tie up the coal for his buddy, Riady, in Indonesia. Clintons made millions off of that deal.

[the_Watchman]

If I were Trump I would announce the reduction and point out that Raidy was entitled to only a 50% refund!!

[hinckley buzzard]

I have travelled through these areas. They are beautiful vast stretches of open space. They were established by the criminals Clinton and Obama to prevent recovery of valuable energy. In each case, one could drill or mine forever and no one would ever see the evidence, they are that vast.

[hinckley buzzard]

there is no upkeep, probably no rangers. We are talking about large undeveloped stretches of open desert, nothing to be maintained.

[Tax-chick]

Heh.

[depressed in 06]

I hope they find some coal.

[Sacajaweau]

2 million acres...that belong to the people of their respective states.

[SkyDancer]

[Cold Heart]

Snort! :)

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Forty years ago there were two mine-mouth coal fired power plants planned for the Kaiparowits Plateau area as there is lots of recoverable coal there. The naturalists put the kabosh on it.

[Freee-dame]

It is a very high grade of coal, used in medical treatments and filters. It is found in very few places in the world. Mining it would have paid for a huge proportion of the education system in New Mexico. I remember Clinton making the announcement from a high point in a neighboring state since the people of New Mexico were so against having their land taken over by the federal government.

The percentage of land west of the Mississippi River controlled by the federal government is astounding.