Many people have not heard of Bears Ears National Monument. It is 2,120 square miles of remote southeastern Utah.
During eight years the interested parties, forged an agreement which would respect all stakeholders’ needs. President Obama made the monument official in 2016. At last the Native American heritage, archeology and paleontology would be protected along with the wildlife and the iconic geology. The future of the exploitation of the oil and uranium, although not currently viable, would be preserved. Tourist traffic would be regulated to avoid destruction and overcrowding. Cattlemen were accommodated. It was to remain a huge playground of various public recreation.
President Trump crushed the agreement when he reduced the size by 85%. The firm, Energy Fuels Resources, lobbied Interior Department officials to shrink the boundaries of the monument. This mining company with influence, wanted to process uranium on site in a location inside the monument, not just remove it. Also, I was given a sheet of very obviously fearmongering propaganda from the Chamber of Commerce while making a purchase at the local Blanding drug store. The nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument was also reduced, by about 800,000 acres.
Obviously, compromise gives solutions. It can also mean something that all parties wouldn’t prefer. Yet, “give some, get some” is more often a fair and democratic end. Aggressive business and that money tend to disregard and override other stakeholders concerns and rights.
President Biden reestablished the birth of the Bears Ears protections when he took office. The results of Donald Trump’s attitudes and actions as president are now court battles, delays and bog down in the implementation of protections. Without protections our heritage can be carried way and destroyed. A dinosaur can be extracted for profit with no regard for the science. History and the understanding of all people’s heritage and cultures are robbed and lost forever. We could see how fast and brazenly that has happened by just our relatively short visit. We were told unsettling stories from the memories of local people. I’ll also insert something about the dino details of considerable wealth, at the end of this article.
It is a huge area and judging that it is too big is an argument from the contrarians. The fact is, we being two of the relatively few, the small percentage, who have actually visited past a drive through and a stop, know how rich and plentiful the seemingly barren yet beautiful landscape is. Treasures are everywhere and we hope to convey a sense of that wide-eyed wealth to you, as this series progresses. To share with you what is yours. The protections of a National Monument are worth it; just the antiquities are so very numerous. It is not just barren real-estate with little use in the middle of nowhere. It is not an overzealous land grab. Its merits are astounding and precious and everywhere. It is just greedy, ignorant and wrong, to instill a lack of protections and to allow theft from future generations and we of the present.
This of course isn’t the more pressing issue of the coming elections. This situation is a symptom of larger movements of power and many American’s opinions differ about those. No matter where you sit politically, it is a clear and certain fact that the fate of the whole of Bears Ears is in the balance. DF and I are deeply saddened that this rich amazing piece of our heritage has been callously turned into a minor football in cheap shortsighted political games.
As I stated above, here are the “Dino Details.” We didn’t explore much of the evidence of that era and consequently won’t have to say much about it, after this.
The Triassic period took place immediately after one of the first mass extinctions on Earth, between 251 million and 199 million years ago, and phytosaurs evolved alongside other species that emerged after roughly 95 percent of the previous species had perished.
One of the reasons Grand Staircase-Escalante was first designated in 1996, was because of its value as a paleontological site. Its Kaiparowits Plateau ranks as one of the most important examples of the Mesozoic Era. It has “yielded 27 new species never known to science before. Bears Ears possesses similar wealth.
Non-permitted looting is happening. Dinosaur remains show up here in Tucson’s Gem and Mineral Show each year. The oil and mineral resources already licensed are not presently economically viable and will not be for many years, if ever. Several locals told us that in the Moab area, “it’s crawling with people.” More tourist are coming to the area. Obviously, there is no stopping them. The region needs protection.
Money, dishonesty, callousness, corruption and ignorance are destroying heritage and science all over the less developed world. Even in Mexico, and not far below our border, vast areas of exceptionally diverse old growth forests are literally being turned into toilet paper. I’d like to think that we are better than that. We can be.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
The Free Range Naturist 