By Joshua Murdock
Uinta Basin Standard
President Barack Obama designated a 1.35-million-acre area of southeastern Utah surrounding Cedar Mesa as Bears Ears National Monument, on Dec. 28, 2016. The designation put to rest a yearslong debate over whether the land would be fully protected or partially developed by industry, but it sparked a new debate over whether or not the incoming Trump administration would – or even could – reverse monument designations under the Antiquities Act.
A majority of Utahns and tribes in the area supported the monument designation.
A news release from the White House stated the Bears Ears designation, and the simultaneous designation of Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada, was aimed to “protect some of our country’s most important cultural treasures, including abundant rock art, archeological (sic) sites, and lands considered sacred by Native American tribes.”
A divisive issue
However, the monument has been a point of division for Utah residents, politicians and public lands stakeholders. The currently dead Utah Public Lands Initiative bill [PLI] introduced to Congress in June 2016 by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) sought to place lesser protections on a smaller area within the proposed monument boundary but would have opened remaining areas to extractive industry development.
In a news release, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), a supporter of the PLI and opponent of Bears Ears National Monument, decried the designation as “an attack on an entire way of life.”
“With this astonishing and egregious abuse of executive power, President Obama has shown that far-left special interest groups matter more to him than the people who have lived on and cared for Utah’s lands for generations,” the release stated.
The Antiquities Act authorizes presidents to protect areas of land for preservation and has been used by presidents since 1916 to create national parks, monuments, forests and other protected areas.
In contrast to Hatch and Utah’s other Republican legislators, a coalition of five Native American tribes residing in the Bears Ears area celebrated the designation of the monument, which was two-thirds the area they proposed for designation.
Navajos grateful
“We are grateful for President Obama’s brave action today,” David Filfred, Navajo Nation council delegate representing Aneth, Teec Nos Pos, Red Mesa and Mexican Water Chapters in Utah, said in a news release from the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. “For the first time in history, a president has used the Antiquities Act to honor the request of Tribal Nations to protect our sacred sites. In doing so, he has given the opportunity for all Americans to come together and heal.”
The new monument will be managed through a partnership between local tribes and the federal government.
“As a coalition of five sovereign Native American Tribes in the region, we are confident that today’s announcement of collaborative management will protect a cultural landscape that we have known since time immemorial,” Alfred Lomahquahu, vice chairman of Hopi tribe and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said in the release. “Our connection with this land is deeply tied to our identities, traditional knowledge, histories, and cultures. We look forward to working with the current and future administrations to fully and properly administer these lands for all to enjoy.”
Utah Statehouse Democrats also praised the designation.
In a news release, Utah House Democratic Caucus Whip and member of the Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands Rep. Joel Briscoe said, “This monument speaks to our core knowledge that this beautiful land was given to us to care for, learn from, and grow. Proposals to protect these sacred lands have been on the drawing board for 80 years. For decades, presidents, governors, state and local leaders have studied the best ways to protect these special places. We cannot ignore the deeply spiritual aspects of this land, its meaning to those who use it and love it, and its immeasurable worth to people now, and in the future. A monument like this is so much greater than all of us, than any political squabble. Creating the Bears Ears National Monument is the right thing to do, for Utah, for our country, and for our future.”
However, members of Utah’s all-Republican congressional delegation including Hatch, Bishop and Sen. Mike Lee announced intentions to request the Trump administration reverse the designation of the monument – a move that is without precedent.
“This arrogant act by a lame duck president will not stand,” Lee said in a news release. “I will work tirelessly with Congress and the incoming Trump administration to honor the will of the people of Utah and undo this designation.”
Hatch said in a news release that his decision whether or not to support Trump’s Secretary of Interior nominee Ryan Zinke would largely hinge on whether or not Zinke favored reversing the monument designation.
However, no president in U.S. history has reversed a predecessor’s national monument designation and experts doubt it can be done.
In a Nov. 12, 2016, Portland (Maine) Press Herald article regarding the Trump administration potentially reversing the recent designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, Kristen Brengel, vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, said, “There are no examples of a president ever reversing a national monument designation since the law was passed over 100 years ago. It has never happened before.”