Like so many who call the Southwest home, I’ve been shaped by our public lands.
It began in the desert, with an annual sojourn my family called Bluff. This began with my grandparents in the 1950s. From that point on, it’s been a tradition observed more faithfully than most holidays.
Since I was a child this place has filled me with wonder and has lured me deeper into my imagination, into new canyons, and the sometimes disorienting piñon-juniper forests.
When I got lost it was Bears Ears as a landmark that helped me find my way.
Now protected as a national monument, I can look up at Bears Ears and the 1.35 million acres that surround it and know the place that has meant so much to me over the years finally has the protection it deserves.
This is because of a landmark of a different sort, the Antiquities Act. For many of us, our public lands provide the most enriching and defining American experiences that we have. The preservation of our public lands system, and the protection of the truly exceptional places within this system, rank high among our proudest legacies. The Antiquities Act has played a crucial role in strengthening the protections for the places that so many of us have come to cherish, including Canyons of the Ancients and Chimney Rock.
Bears Ears now ranks among them, a place as incomparable and wonderful as any. The values here are innumerable, the landscape unlike any other; its importance is undeniable.
Yet there are some intent on eliminating the Antiquities Act, dismantling our public lands system, and consequently their protection and our access. What’s worse is some of these people are endeavoring to do so in the 115th Congress right now.
These attacks feel personal to me because they are attacks on my way of life, my identity and my traditions. These places like Bears Ears matter and they contain invaluable significance for all of us. We need tools like the Antiquities Act in our toolbox to help protect them.
I hope my elected representatives will remember that when it’s time to vote.
Jed Webster Smith
Durango
