Bears Ears National Monument

Reef&Ruins said:
"House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) commended Zinke on Tuesday for “actually listening to the people on the local level” and Trump for showing “some real courage against well-funded litigation machines.”"
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That made me laugh out loud. "Well-funded litigation machines" could just as well apply to resource extraction companies that push the other way. I'll acknowledge that there are well-funded organizations on both sides, but it sure is stupid to call this move courageous like that.
 
I wrote a letter to Senator Corey Gardner, and this is his totally worthless response:

Dear Mr. Watts,


Thank you for contacting me regarding monument designations. I appreciate you taking the time to write. It is an honor to serve you in the United States Senate and I hope you will continue to write with your thoughts and ideas on moving our country forward.

On April 26, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of the Interior to review all National Monument designations made under the Antiquities Act since 1996 that cover more than 100,000 acres, or that were made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders. This review is intended to determine whether proper public input procedures were followed during the designation process. The Secretary of the Interior is also directed to provide a report to the President with recommendations for action.

As a fifth generation Coloradan, I respect and value the public lands we have and I will continue to fight to ensure they are protected for future generations. Only one monument in Colorado qualifies for review under President Trump’s executive order: Canyons of the Ancients in southwestern Colorado. I do not support removing that site’s national monument designation. On May 23, 2017, I sent a letter, along with Congressman Tipton, to the Department of Interior asking that no changes be made to the monument. On July 21, 2017, Secretary Zinke announced he will recommend no changes be made to the monument. I applaud this decision and will continue working with the Department of Interior to ensure that Colorado’s public lands are protected.

Again, thank you for contacting me, and do not hesitate to do so again when an issue is important to you.



Sincerely,
CGFormalSig.png

Cory Gardner
United States Senator

Our politicians hard at work for us! His job is to only protect Colorado lands? Utah is up for grabs. Spineless.
 
Unfortunately this is how most politicians appear to operate, well if they aren't bought out completely. They were offering up all kinds of things to Murkowski (Alaska) and Collins (Maine) to get them to vote on the tax plan. That bill of course doesn't deal with this stuff but it did have very public examples of how they do the earmarks for specific states to win critical support.
 
gnwatts said:
I wrote a letter to Senator Corey Gardner, and this is his totally worthless response:

Dear Mr. Watts,


Thank you for contacting me regarding monument designations. I appreciate you taking the time to write. It is an honor to serve you in the United States Senate and I hope you will continue to write with your thoughts and ideas on moving our country forward.

On April 26, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of the Interior to review all National Monument designations made under the Antiquities Act since 1996 that cover more than 100,000 acres, or that were made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders. This review is intended to determine whether proper public input procedures were followed during the designation process. The Secretary of the Interior is also directed to provide a report to the President with recommendations for action.

As a fifth generation Coloradan, I respect and value the public lands we have and I will continue to fight to ensure they are protected for future generations. Only one monument in Colorado qualifies for review under President Trump’s executive order: Canyons of the Ancients in southwestern Colorado. I do not support removing that site’s national monument designation. On May 23, 2017, I sent a letter, along with Congressman Tipton, to the Department of Interior asking that no changes be made to the monument. On July 21, 2017, Secretary Zinke announced he will recommend no changes be made to the monument. I applaud this decision and will continue working with the Department of Interior to ensure that Colorado’s public lands are protected.

Again, thank you for contacting me, and do not hesitate to do so again when an issue is important to you.



Sincerely,
CGFormalSig.png

Cory Gardner
United States Senator

Our politicians hard at work for us! His job is to only protect Colorado lands? Utah is up for grabs. Spineless.
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At least he responded. My asshat rep is the one that introduced the Escalante Canyon National Park bill/robbery and he has yet to respond to my letter to him about it.
 
For what it is worth, no one will be getting to the Doll House for a while unless they are packing a chainsaw. Large tree down in the road, wedged on both sides so as to negate the chance of tow strapping it out as of this morning. :) Lots of trees down up there with that silly little storm that just blew through.
 
Reef&Ruins said:
From the WaPo article posted earlier three very telling quotes
“I don’t yield to public pressure,” Zinke said Tuesday. “Sound public policy is not based on threats of lawsuit. It’s doing what’s right.""
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Apparently, it's also flying around on the private planes of the same oil and gas company executives who have been lobbying you to open up the monuments. And giving a two person operation from your hometown an inside track to a $300 million contract to rebuild a country, no experience required.
 
Scott Chandler said:
For what it is worth, no one will be getting to the Doll House for a while unless they are packing a chainsaw. Large tree down in the road, wedged on both sides so as to negate the chance of tow strapping it out as of this morning. :) Lots of trees down up there with that silly little storm that just blew through.
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Anyone know if this tree or any others are still sitting there in the way? If I can manage the time in my agenda...I was thinking about heading up there next weekend while I'm down that way.

Also...can anyone venture to say what the odds are that all 20 of the day's permits for Moon House will have been maxed out by mid day next Sunday? I know it's very much in the off season, but it is a holiday weekend as well. I know they're self-serve at the trailhead this time of year, but I'd hate to make that drive down Snow Flat with my daughters only to find that 18+ permits have already been logged into the register that morning.
 
WasatchWill said:
Anyone know if this tree or any others are still sitting there in the way? If I can manage the time in my agenda...I was thinking about heading up there next weekend while I'm down that way.
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Not sure about the tree, but even with no snow this is a route I won't drive in the winter again. On one of the shelf sections of road there is a spring that freezes into a sheet of ice that slides your vehicle toward the edge. Not one of my favorite experiences...especially on the way down when I first hit the ice. Just a heads up :)
 
IntrepidXJ said:
Not sure about the tree, but even with no snow this is a route I won't drive in the winter again. On one of the shelf sections of road there is a spring that freezes into a sheet of ice that slides your vehicle toward the edge. Not one of my favorite experiences...especially on the way down when I first hit the ice. Just a heads up :)
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Thanks for that. I'll likely save it for later in the Spring then and use that time to take the girls up to Tower House and maybe camp up on South Posey if it's not too windy that evening, or just spend some time in Natural Bridges and camp there or down in Comb Wash.
 
I didn't realize that you could still just go out and stake a claim for the minerals. My Dad is a member of a gold mining club in SE Oregon and they have to do more than that to be able to set up there equipment on streams and hillsides that are on BLM land, and this is just a group of a dozen or so people, not some large company. I guess maybe that is the next step, I'm not sure if they were able to just stake the claim and then have to fill out the additional paperwork to perform the mining activity.
 
Serious question. Will Cedar Mesa and the Bears Ears area actually get torn up by mining because of this? To my (not vast) knowledge, it wasn't a hotbed of mining before, so if it is still economically nonviable, is there any immediate threat? Of course leaving it open to such use could result in destruction over the long term, but I'm just wondering about right now. Is there now a line of companies looking to start extracting because of all the attention the area has been getting?

And what about GSENM? I've heard of there being some mineral deposits out there, and it's been off-limits for a while, so it seems like it may be at more risk.

Any insight is appreciated.
 
Jackson said:
Serious question. Will Cedar Mesa and the Bears Ears area actually get torn up by mining because of this? To my (not vast) knowledge, it wasn't a hotbed of mining before, so if it is still economically nonviable, is there any immediate threat? Of course leaving it open to such use could result in destruction over the long term, but I'm just wondering about right now. Is there now a line of companies looking to start extracting because of all the attention the area has been getting?

And what about GSENM? I've heard of there being some mineral deposits out there, and it's been off-limits for a while, so it seems like it may be at more risk.

Any insight is appreciated.
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Yes, there are a lot of oil wells in the bears ears and cedar mesa area already. Most of them exploratory in nature. However, if the cost of oil rises, it may be economically viable to extract. If you drive south along 261 at night, you can see dozens of wells off to your east. To put it in more concrete terms, there are old drilling operation s at the fish and owl parking, as well as where slickhorn meets the river.

In grand staircase, the kaiparowits has quite a bit of coal. The original monument declaration in the 90s shut down serious plans for a line up there.
 
Lockhart basin is also pretty scarred by drilling, with more proposed drilling in the works as well.
 
If a lease holder can do "exploratory" work, that would be destructive by itself, access roads etc.
 
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