U.S. Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary Deb Haa­land has called on Pres­i­dent Biden to restore both the size and pro­tec­tions giv­en to three nation­al mon­u­ments that were slashed and opened to oil and gas explo­ration and com­mer­cial use dur­ing the Trump Regime.

The mon­u­ments are Bears Ears in south­east Utah, a land of Native Amer­i­can cliff dwellings and bur­ial grounds in south­east Utah; Grand Stair­case-Escalante in the canyon­lands of south­ern Utah; and a marine pre­serve off the New Eng­land coast that Trump opened to com­mer­cial fishing.

Using his author­i­ty under the 1906 Antiq­ui­ties Act, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma cre­at­ed the Bears Ears Nation­al Mon­u­ment in 2016 short­ly before leav­ing office.

The Val­ley of the Gods in Utah, part of Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s Bears Ears nation­al mon­u­ment des­ig­na­tion, was among the trea­sures removed from the mon­u­ment by Don­ald Trump. Joe Biden now has a chance to undo that action. (Pho­to:
Mobilus In Mobili, repro­duced under a Cre­ative Com­mons license)

Pres­i­dent Clin­ton des­ig­nat­ed Grand Stair­case-Escalante in 1992.

Oba­ma also cre­at­ed the big, 4,913-square mile North­east Canyons and Seamounts Mar­itime Nation­al Mon­u­ment off Cape Cod.

His­tor­i­cal­ly allied with the min­ing indus­try – all the way back to when Theodore Roo­sevelt cre­at­ed a Grand Canyon Nation­al Mon­u­ment – politi­cians in Utah and the South­west have fought mon­u­ment and nation­al park designation.

The Bee­hive State’s con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion was buzzing again at Haaland’s rec­om­men­da­tion. Gov­er­nor Spencer Cox, R‑Utah, said in a state­ment: “There’s a bet­ter way and I look for­ward to talk­ing with the Pres­i­dent about how to find a last­ing solu­tion that’s bet­ter for the land and every­one involved.”

Utah House Speak­er Brad Wil­son said land use deci­sions should not be dic­tat­ed by “politi­cians, bureau­crats and spe­cial inter­est groups.”

Sun­set at the Toad­stools, one of the most incred­i­ble geo­log­ic fea­tures in Grand Stair­case-Escalante Nation­al Mon­u­ment (Pho­to: James Mar­vin Phelps, repro­duced under a Cre­ative Com­mons license)

Such sen­ti­ments will bring tears to your eyes, if you hap­pen to be a croc­o­dile.  There was no con­sul­ta­tion in 2017 when Trump loud­ly cut the guts out of both mon­u­ments. Bears Ears was reduced from 1.3 mil­lion acres to two seg­ments total­ing 215,000 acres, with the drillers invit­ed to bid on delet­ed por­tions. Grand Stair­case-Escalante was cut from 1.9 mil­lion acres to 800,000 acres.

Once more, a rad­i­cal­ized Repub­li­can Par­ty betrayed what was a con­ser­va­tion lega­cy. Three nation­al parks in Utah began as nation­al mon­u­ments and received their ini­tial pro­tec­tion from Repub­li­can pres­i­dents. William Howard Taft set aside what became Zion Nation­al Park. War­ren G. Hard­ing pro­tect­ed what’s now Bryce Canyon Nation­al Park from over­graz­ing and tree cut­ting. Her­bert Hoover des­ig­nat­ed the mon­u­ment that is now Arch­es Nation­al Park.

The “West­ern Cau­cus”, con­sist­ing of con­ser­v­a­tive House Repub­li­cans – cur­rent­ly chaired by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dan New­house, R‑Washington – has pur­sued two goals, emas­cu­lat­ing the Antiq­ui­ties Act with pres­i­den­tial pow­ers to set aside mon­u­ments, and evis­cer­at­ing the Endan­gered Species Act.

The case for a Bears Ears Nation­al Mon­u­ment was made for years by Native Amer­i­can groups in the South­west, against furi­ous oppo­si­tion led by offi­cials and leg­is­la­tors from Utah’s San Juan Coun­ty, and now-retired U.S. Sen­a­tor Orin Hatch, R‑Utah. The argu­ment rang famil­iar to those who have wit­nessed Pacif­ic North­west wilder­ness bat­tles, the claim that feds were going to “lock up” the land. West­ern writer Edward Abbey once quipped: “Vis­i­tors are always wel­come in the Bee­hive State. Just set your watch back fifty years.”

Well, cul­tur­al sites need to be protected.

Sec­re­tary Haa­land put it best after tour­ing Bears Ears in April, telling The Guardian: “There are some pret­ty amaz­ing ruins there and you know, I don’t even like to call them ruins because to our cul­ture, in Pueblo cul­ture if you acknowl­edge our ances­tors, they are there. The spir­it of the peo­ple nev­er leaves.”

Haa­land is America’s first Native Amer­i­can Cab­i­net secretary.

She is a mem­ber of the Lagu­na Pueblo, elect­ed to Con­gress from New Mex­i­co in 2018 before her nom­i­na­tion to head the Inte­ri­or Depart­ment two years lat­er.  Repub­li­can sen­a­tors rep­re­sent­ing Indi­an Coun­try in the Moun­tain West vig­or­ous­ly opposed her con­fir­ma­tion. But Alaska’s trio of GOP law­mak­ers, Sen­a­tors Lisa Murkows­ki and Dan Sul­li­van and Rep. Don Young, sup­port­ed Haa­land and praised her work help­ing put togeth­er the 2020 Great Amer­i­can Out­doors Act.

The Trump down­siz­ing of Bears Ears and Grand Stair­case-Escalante served to put pub­lic focus on both areas. Patag­o­nia used mon­ey from the Repub­li­cans’ 2017 tax cut to help finance a legal chal­lenge to Trump’s actions. Rock climb­ing groups ral­lied to defense of Bears Ears. In a tweet on Mon­day, the Nat­ur­al Resources Defense Coun­cil said: “Thank you to the Indige­nous activists lead­ing this fight and Inte­ri­or Sec­re­tary Deb Haa­land for this impor­tant recommendation.”

It is still a recommendation.

Haa­land was care­ful to meet in April with Gov­er­nor Cox and U.S. Sen­a­tor Mitt Rom­ney, R‑Utah, who was elect­ed to take Hatch’s seat in 2018.

Chances are, with Romney’s posi­tion in the Sen­ate, the Utah con­gres­sion­al del­e­ga­tion will get the chance to make its case.

Trolling for votes from the fish­eries indus­try, Trump last year reopened the North­east Canyons and Seamounts Mon­u­ment to com­mer­cial fish­ing, which obvi­at­ed much of the pro­tec­tion giv­en the area. As cre­at­ed by Oba­ma, the mon­u­ment pro­hib­it­ed seabed min­ing and most fish­ing, although lob­ster and crab boat oper­a­tors were giv­en a sev­en year grace period.

Bam­boo coral in North­east Canyons and Seamounts Marine Nation­al Mon­u­ment (Pho­to: NOAA)

Pres­i­dent Biden has a lot on his plate, includ­ing seafood.