President Biden s nomination of U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico to lead the Department of the Interior is historic on many levels. Haaland, an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna , was one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, along with U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas. And if confirmed, she will be the first Native American to
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There’s a painful axiom in the conservation community: “To protect land, you have to win the same battle over and over again.”
The fight for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments has resumed. It never really ended.
When President Trump eviscerated these Utah preserves in December 2017, Grand Staircase had been a national monument for more than 20 years. Bears Ears was new, established by President Obama in 2016, and acclaimed as a historic gesture of healing and respect toward the five Native American nations that had proposed the preserve and would share in its management. Trump’s directive reduced the size of Bears Ears by 85%, Grand Staircase by half.
Commentary: The unique landscape of Bears Ears must be protected
Members of the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance support the restoration of the national monument.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Two buttes that make up the namesake for Utah s Bears Ears National Monument are shown on Dec. 28, 2016, in southeastern Utah. With Joe Biden s capture of the White House comes the likelihood that Utah s two big national monuments will be restored to their original boundaries, reopening yet another front in the West s public lands wars.
| Feb. 13, 2021, 9:00 p.m.
As the board of the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance (MESA), we support and encourage the restoration of the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument. We agree with the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board that Utah’s elected leaders should not waste valuable time and resources opposing the restoration of the monument.
The Biden administration reversed a Trump-era rule that would have given state and local officials the authority to block conservation purchases made by the federal government.
FILE – This July 15, 2016, file photo, shows the “Moonhouse” in McLoyd Canyon which is part of Bears Ears National Monument, near Blanding, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
(CN) Of the many midnight regulations passed by the Trump administration on the way out the door, Secretarial Order 3388 may have had the shortest run.
Former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued the order less than a week after the election, when much of the national attention remained focused on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undermine the results.
The U.S. Interior Department will start consultations with Native American tribal leaders next month on COVID-19, economic security, racial justice and climate change, part of efforts by President Joe Biden to get more tribal input in federal policy deliberations.