BLM sets meetings on new monument management plans

The Bureau of Land Management will host four meetings to give the public a chance to weigh in on new management plans being crafted for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Overall, the process involves developing six land use plans and two associated environmental impact statements that cover 2.1 million acres of federal land in San Juan, Garfield and Kane counties. The scoping period for these planning efforts was initiated Jan. 16 for two units in the Bears Ears region — the Shash Jaa and Indian Creek — as well as for the Grand Staircase, Kaiparowits and Escalante Canyon units at what was once Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. That monument and Bears Ears National Monument's boundaries were reduced in December by President Donald Trump in action now under legal challenge by Native American tribes and multiple environmental groups. In the interim, the federal land management agency has moved ahead with management plans for the new units, as well as federal land that was part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument but is now excluded from monument boundaries...more