There isn’t a lot of “there” there in Interior Secretary Zinke’s recent report to President Trump of the Bears Ears National Monument - he recommends that it be shrunk, be broken into smaller pieces and be opened to more oil and gas drilling, but with shamefully little rationale to support such significant changes.
Instead of arguing, like President Trump did, that Bears Ears was a “federal land grab“, Zinke confirms that most of it is already managed by federal agencies.
To justify shrinking the monument, Zinke says he wants to protect the lands important to Native American tribes for traditional rituals, gatherings and tribal practices. In fact, the current national monument designation already protects those uses. The first and strongest monument proponent was a coalition of five Native American tribes.
It is estimated that Bears Ears protects over 100,000 cultural sites attesting to centuries of human occupation. These cultural resources are of tremendous value for research and are sacred places to the many tribes.
These unique cultural sites and breath-taking landscapes also bring tourists to the area. Here in southwest Colorado, towns rely on visitors to the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument and Mesa Verde National Park – as well as Bears Ears. “Heritage Tourism” is now a major economic driver in the Four Corners region. Mesa Verde alone welcomed over 550,000 visitors last year who pumped $55 million into the local economy. Well managed, heritage tourism is an industry that’s safe, non-polluting and leaves the area improved.
The only criteria given in the report for dramatically changing the monument is its size. The 1905 Antiquities Act states that the areas protected should be the “smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of those objects.” But with the highest density of archaeological sites in the country, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition proposed that the monument be one-half million acres more than it is. How large should a place like Bears Ears be, with its tens of thousands of cultural sites? What about the Grand Canyon’s 1.2 million acres? Or Death Valley’s 1.8 million acres? President George W. Bush named our largest monuments (both are marine). The Rose is 8.5 million acres, the Marana, 61 million.
Sec. Zinke proposes breaking up Bears Ears and protecting bits and pieces rather than keeping the whole. He should ask any of his land managing staff if it is easier and most cost-effective to manage a large area or lots of small parcels?
There is mining of oil and gas there, but removing protection from the monument will open it up to potentially devastating drilling, mining and looting of Native American objects.
Native American heritage is irreplaceable – once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. How does the value of this heritage measure up against rigs and wells? Zinke’s promise that future designations will protect certain areas is, at best, wishful thinking.
Trump called for a review of all monuments designated between 1996 and 2016 that were over 100,000 acres and/or did not have “sufficient public input.” The review is an egregious waste of time and taxpayer funds. We locals know that there was tremendous opportunity for public input – but not necessarily consensus. The Utah Congressional delegation never supported the monument even though most Utahans do.
Zinke’s report noted the receipt of 76,000 responses on the monument review, yet we have heard of nearly 1 million, all in favor of the existing Bears Ears boundaries and no changes to its uses.
Finally, Zinke recommends that the monument boundary be revised through “lawful exercise of the President’s authority granted by the [Antiquities] Act,” but there’s no such provision there. Under the Antiquities Act, only Congress, not the President, has the authority to abolish a national monument. Such action would mean lengthy, expensive lawsuits funded by taxpayers.
Not only would rescinding or resizing the Bears Ears National Monument be legally unprecedented, it would violate the Antiquities Act that was signed into law 111 years ago by President Teddy Roosevelt, the father of our public lands. Ironically, when Zinke became Interior Secretary, he called himself a “Teddy Roosevelt Conservationist.”
It’s a good thing Teddy’s not here to witness this travesty. The deadline to comment on the monument review (at regulations.gov) is Monday.
Deborah Gangloff, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez. Reach her at dgangloff@crowcanyon.org.
