Posted on 06/03/2017 1:21:18 AM PDT by blueplum
"Any perceived benefits from the designation of huge landscape monuments need to be weighed against the impacts suffered by those who have traditionally used the lands," Kathleen Clarke, the former Bureau of Land Management director and now head of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, told a House Natural Resources subcommittee. "Landscapes don't disappear, but jobs and artifacts do." {snip} The testimony comes as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, as ordered by President Donald Trump, is reviewing the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase designations and other national monuments named in the past 21 years. Zinke must report back recommendations by June 10 on Bears Ears and the rest within four months.
Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who heads the Natural Resources Committee, charged that the Bears Ears designation ignored the wishes of residents, especially Native Americans in the area.
"Never in my 14 years of Congress have I seen such a concerted effort to suppress the voices of local tribes by such powerful, deep-pocketed opponents," Bishop said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
The Mormons have been trying to get rid of a certain monument at Mountain Meadows for years...
Sorry, just had a tagline revelation.
My contention in regard to the Bundy case all along has been that the Fed Gov is just tightening it’s grip on public lands. Think about it. Almost since the time of the Louisiana Purchase most of the land has been almost worthless. Sure folks have made fortunes in mining and ranching but the value per acre for scores and scores of years has been “dirt”.
In recent years that value has started to rise for a number of different reasons. One other thing to rise has been public debt. IMHO, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to draw a straight line from one to the other. Since public land is what is the security on public debt, clear title has to be established. When that land largely had little value no one cared that ranchers eked out a minimal living on it. When it had little value and was pretty hard to get to no one cared what miners did.
The states out west are going to have a hard time wresting rights to it from the Fed Gov, IMHO.
Instead of gold our money should be pegged to land.
LOL. It is.
I think that is the point. When it wasn’t no one gave a particular damn what went on out west. If it wasn’t within a mile of a railroad the Fed Gov couldn’t even GIVE it away. That has all changed long ago. Now it HAS real value and for many, many years just who did own it was not a real point of contention. Notice how aggressive the Fed Gov has gotten about it’s rights in regard to this land over the last 20 or so years. Curiously, just as the public debt has risen.
When money is underwritten by Gold you build Fort Knox. When money is underwritten by endless miles of land what do you do? Make Laws and Regulations.
Once upon a time there was the call of “tear down that wall”; now the best that can be called for is “tear down that monument”
Have our money secured by CRA loans, and see what happens. :(
Thank you for giving me another way of looking at this issue
It is sad but in this day and age you have to pay very close attention to the stories and angles the media refuses to cover.
Absolutely. Why we are here.
Why only 21 years, what about the clinton first term land grabs?
Yes, they do.
Makes sense, for years you could get approval for improvements on BLM lands, they were actually encouraged but not since Obama.
It seems that any time the topic of removing monument status comes up the accusation is “you want to destroy” the monument.
It’s insulting to think that the good people of Utah can’t or won’t preserve these sites.
After watching the EPA’s fiasco in Colorado, I think the fed government shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near these places.
The law - very old - that permits presidents to, on their own authority, declare a “national monument” should be legislatively repealed/modified. A requirement for Congressional approval and Congressional legislation for each such declaration should be in the law/new law.
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