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Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

UPDATED | Biden To Restore Boundaries To Bears Ears, Grand Staircase Monuments

President Biden, in a move certain to please tribes, conservationists, and environmentalists while sure to anger Utah officials, has decided to restore the original boundaries to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts national monuments, according to U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva.

Haaland's Utah Visit Leaves Her Much To Ponder Over Bears Ears, Grand Staircase Boundaries

For the third time in less than five years an Interior secretary has visited southern Utah to try to grasp the significance of a landscape with a cultural heritage that reaches back thousands of years, one that also entombs paleontological remains millions of years old, in a bid to determine the appropriate size of two national monuments.

What Is The Future Of Bears Ears And Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments?

Among the items on President-elect Joe Biden's to-do list that is expected to get quick action is an executive order rescinding President Trump's dismantling of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, action that possibly could spur even more legal battles over these unique landscapes.

National Parks Traveler Episode 52: Accessible Parks, Utah's Dismantled Monuments

Candy Harrington, a journalist who traveled the National Park System to see how accessible lodges and trails in the parks really are, discusses her new book on accessibility in the parks. And Cory MacNulty and Erika Pollard from the National Parks Conservation Association’s Southwest Regional Office discuss the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plans for managing the greatly reduced in size Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments, and the roughly 2 million acres that were pulled out of the monuments so they could be opened to mining, grazing, and other resource-impacting activities.

Trump Administration Proposes Aggressive Management Techniques For Parts Of Bears Ears National Monument

Chaining, the practice of using heavy chains stretched between tractors or bulldozers to rip out vegetation, would be allowed in parts of Bears Ears National Monument under the Trump administration's proposed management plan. The plan, which also would allow new roads and utility lines to cross the landscape in southeastern Utah, drew immediate condemnation Friday from environmental and tribal groups, who are hoping their legal moves to reverse President Trump's redrawing of the monument's boundaries will prevent the plan from taking effect.

Study Examines Global Attacks On Protected Areas

For want of timber and other natural resources, the federal government during a three-decade period early in the 20th century steadily whittled away at Yosemite National Park, eventually carving off about a third of that icon of the National Park System. Leap forward to early in the 21st century, and for want of energy and multiple-use benefits President Trump is trying to remove 85 percent of Bears Ears National Monument from within its original borders.

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