The Mountaineers
Today kicks off the 15-day public comment period for the Bears Ears National Monument review. Last month President Trump issued an executive order calling for the review of National Monuments designated under the Antiquities Act. Following the order, The Department of the Interior announced a public comment period for 27 specific National Monuments under review. Unlike the other monuments, which have a 60-day comment period, Bears Ears only has a 15-day window. Action to protect these treasured National Monuments is urgent.
Update: Thank you to everyone who joined us in submitting comments in support of Bears Ears. The official comment period has ended. We will keep you updated on news and action opportunities as the review process progresses.
Why Bears Ears Matters
This corner of Southeast Utah is an amazing landscape: the monument conserves a million plus acres of beautiful canyons, forests, and rock formations, and is home to ancient cliff dwellings and sacred rock art as well as some of the most notable desert crack climbing in the U.S.
Indian Creek, Lockhart Basin, Arch/Texas Canyon and Comb Ridge are some of the exceptional climbing opportunities protected in the Bears Ears National Monument.
The protection of Bears Ears was a process that brought together many different interest groups, from the inter-tribal coalition of five sovereign Tribal Nations in Utah to recreation voices. An attack on Bears Ears is a direct blow to a years-long assessment process that included a wide spectrum of stakeholders – and represents serious implications for all our nation’s public lands.
The Big Picture
If this process seems unusual, it’s because it is. The executive order is unprecedented, and a number of questions remain about implications that it may lead to reversing or shrinking designations. What is clear is that the 1906 Antiquities Act – the legislation that’s conserved everything from the Grand Canyon to Washington state’s Hanford Reach and the San Juan Islands monuments – is under threat.
At The Mountaineers, our mission includes "conserving…the land and waters of the Pacific Northwest and beyond.” We lead from the Northwest knowing that the well being of wild places close to home are bound to the well being of wild places across the nation and around the world.
Nowhere is this truer than Bears Ears.
Please join The Mountaineers in using this comment period to share your support for Bears Ears and our National Monuments. The action tool below makes it easy to send your comments directly to the Department of the Interior.
We are hoping our community will flood the review with notes of support for the Bears Ears National Monument. If you want to take the next step in advocating for the places where we play, a hand written letter holds a bit more weight than an email. Double your voice and send an email through this action tool, plus a letter in the mail. You can mail letters to: Monument Review, MS-1530, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240.
We’re currently making a big push to advocate for Bears Ears due to the short 15-day comment period. We‘ll keep you updated on the other monuments and provide more opportunities to weigh in as this process unfolds. To stay up to date, subscribe to our newsletter Conservation Currents and follow us Facebook.
