Trump team releases Bears Ears management plan to outcry from environmental groups

Zak Podmore

Forests could be cleared, an ATV trail built and utility lines erected under a new federal management plan unveiled Friday for the shrunken Bears Ears National Monument. The far-reaching plan, released by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, spells out priorities and guidelines for the 202,000 acres that remain in the monument since President Donald Trump reduced it to 15% of its original size in late 2017. At 800-plus pages, the plan outlines proposals and potential impacts on everything from recreation areas and human waste to grazing and rights of way for utility lines. The agencies made adjustments from the “preferred alternative” draft plan, one of four proposals put forward last year. The proposal released Friday offers a fifth option, known as Alternative E, which limits dispersed camping to “previously disturbed areas” along with recreation group sizes in some places. In some cases, the plan could lead to fewer protections than the pre-monument resource management plan. Group size limits may increase in lower Arch Canyon and some canyons on the archaeologically rich Cedar Mesa. The new plan also allows for chaining — the clearing of pinyon and juniper forests, often used to create pasture for grazing or fire management — within Bears Ears, and for the potential construction of a new OHV trail in the Indian Creek area. Unlike some of the other proposals, the plan states Alternative E will “not manage inventoried lands with wilderness characteristics specifically to protect wilderness characteristics.” It also notes Alternative E places fewer restrictions on recreational visitation, group size, camping, campfires, rock climbing, pets and target shooting than other alternatives, which could “diminish the recreational experience of recreational users who visit the monument to enjoy its scenic resources and desire a more primitive recreation setting.” The Monument Advisory Committee recommended at its first meeting in June that no areas in the monument be closed to grazing, but the final plan limits grazing in nine canyons on Comb Ridge that contain cultural resources. It also requires visitors to pack out human waste from Comb Ridge and Mule Canyon. The management plan proposes to ban target shooting in campgrounds, developed recreation sites, petroglyphs and structural archaeological sites such as cliff dwellings. ...MORE