Utah Delegation All Out Against Bears Ears Monument

On Wednesday, September 21, Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert will join his state’s congressional delegation to offer several resolutions opposing another, proposed National Monument in the Beehive State. Scheduled for 2pm Mountain Daylight Time at the Senate “swamp” in Washington, D.C., the press conference is considered a last-ditch effort to deflect the very real possibility of another National Monument designation in Utah by President Obama. The President would use the provisions of the 1906 AntiquitiesAct to do so. A list of the resolutions and petitions to be delivered Wednesday by Herbert and Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee includes the work of many local officials from San Juan County, one of Utah’s most impoverished areas, with a population of 14,746 residents (ref 2010 census). The county is nearly equally divided between native Navajo (Diné) and mostly white descendants of Mormon pioneer families. A list to be discussed at the Wednesday press conference includes – Resolutions from the Blue Mountain Dine’ and the Aneth Chapter of the Navajo Nation in opposition to the new National Monument as proposed by the Diné Bikéyah 12-tribe council. – A petition from the Descendants of Kaayelii in opposition to the Monument.. – Resolutions from the cities of Blanding, Monticello (the San Juan County seat) Utah and the San Juan County Board of Commissioners and Utah’s state legislature, all opposing the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument. – A letter from the Utah Wildlife Board opposition to the designation. Additionally, Utah Senator Mike Lee has previously introduced the “Utah National Monument Parity Act” which seeks to amend the Antiquities Act of 1906 to halt further use of the executive branch’s conservation law in Utah without congressional approval...more