Park Service officials are worried that fracking near Hovenweep NM could cause damaging earthquakes that could affect prehistoric structures such as Stronghold House/NPS, Andrew Kuhn

National Park Service officials had urged the Bureau of Land Management to put some miles between oil and gas leases they auctioned Tuesday and parks in southeastern Utah, voicing concerns over impacts to groundwater, air quality, night skies, soundscapes, and even earthquakes that could damage prehistoric structures at Hovenweep National Monument.

Native American groups, meanwhile, gathered at the BLM offices in Salt Lake City to protest the auction, saying the Trump administration was determined to erase their history "for financial gain."

The protests were just the latest against the administration's public lands polices, and more could be expected later in the week as the BLM puts up leases near Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming and then near Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado.

"Earlier this month, Interior Secretary Zinke cited negative impacts to cultural resources and the economic value of protecting lands near our national parks and treasured landscapes when he temporarily deferred sales near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. That was the right decision, which only amplifies why sales at Hovenweep and Fort Laramie don’t make sense," said Jerry Otero, Southwest energy program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Once again, this administration has chosen to ignore concerns raised by the public when making decisions on our public lands. This incoherent approach to ‘saving’ some lands while endangering others with equal cultural, recreational and historical values is not a sustainable way to manage energy development on our public lands."

The setting of Hovenweep National Monument, which straddles the Utah-Colorado border, could be impacted in various ways, the Park Service said in its comments to the BLM leasing plan.

"The parcels that will be offered for lease have the potential to affect resources such as air quality, dark night sky, scenic value, soundscapes and groundwater quality imortant to all the parks in the Southeast Utah Group (Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and Hovenweep and Natural Bridges national monuments)," wrote Kate Cannon, superintendent for the group.

Superintendent Cannon, in her comments last October, pointed out that visitation to the parks under her purview has "increased dramatically in recent years," but went on to state that "(W)e would be concerned about impacts to resources regardless of visitation; however, the trend of dramatically increasing visitation to the area suggests that increased emphasis be given to associated landscape features such as air quality, scenic views, soundscapes, and dark night skies."

On top of threats to those qualities, the superintendent added that, "we are concerned about the potential for earthquakes that could result from lubrication of faults, bedding planes, formation contacts, and other subsurface geologic structures by injection of water during hydraulic fracturing or injection of produced water."

"Prehistoric structures at Hovenweep would be very susceptible to even extremely slight earth tremors initiatied by fluid injection," the Superintendent Cannon noted.

With respect to Hovenweep, she wrote, leases put up for auction should be at least 15 miles from the monument. Some are as close as three miles, noted the superintendent.

A protest of an oil and gas lease auction on southeastern Utah lands considered sacred to tribal groups was held Tuesday at the BLM offices in Salt Lake City/HO

In Salt Lake City on Tuesday, tribal members of Utah Diné Bikéyah gathered to protest the lease auction.

“Oil and gas development, along with the legacy of uranium mining and milling, from the 1940s-1950s has been a curse for Native Americans in San Juan County," said Mark Maryboy, a board member for the group. "Cancer-related deaths associated with exposure to uranium and respiratory issues from exposure to fracking and flares in the Aneth oil fields are just some examples of how non-renewable energy development impacts the health of Native Americans in the county.

"It is obvious that the Trump administration and the BLM are advancing the agenda of global corporations at the expense of Native people. As long-term steward of our public lands, they must listen to our voices as protectors and healers of Mother Earth by ending this type of natural resource exploitation. They should always consult with the sovereign Native American tribes on how to proceed,” he added.

Dr. Len Necefer, founder and CEO of Natives Outdoors, faulted the BLM for not recognizing the millennia of cultural history connected to the lands.

“The landscapes, history, and ecosystems of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante are interconnected and extend far beyond the boundaries of any designation. These landscapes hold thousands of years of invaluable cultural heritage that have already endured decades of looting and grave robbing," he said. "The leasing of land for oil, gas, and hard rock mining near these sites represents the next step in erasing this history for financial gain. As a member of the outdoor industry, I stand behind the tribes of the intertribal coalition in protecting these areas.”