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SALT LAKE CITY For the third time in five years, a U.S. Department of Interior secretary is visiting Utah amid a debate over two controversial national monument designations that will likely never fully be resolved.
In a release sent late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Interior announced that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland received briefings from federal employees, visited the Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff, San Juan County, met with tribal leaders and was meeting with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and members of Utah s congressional delegation.
On Thursday, she will be joined by tribal leaders in more tours of the Bears Ears region and will meet with stakeholders in San Juan County who include local elected officials, ranchers, conservation organizations, mining companies, paleontologists and archaeologists.
Tourists and looters descend on Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument as Biden mulls protections Published 3 hours ago
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Print article BLUFF, Utah - In the sandstone canyon where Vaughn Hadenfeldt once saw the bloody tracks of a mountain lion hauling off a mule deer, there are 1,000-year-old cliff dwellings decorated by rock paintings of bighorn sheep where one can still see the ancient footprint of an infant pressed into the wall. A renowned wilderness guide with decades of experience exploring the Bears Ears area, Hadenfeldt has long argued that this austere landscape teeming with archaeological and cultural treasure in southeastern Utah should be viewed as an outdoor museum. And each time he visits, more of that treasure has been looted.
Interior secretary steps into Utah public lands tug-of-war Sophia Eppolito ,
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) For decades, a public lands tug-of-war has played out over a vast expanse of southern Utah where red rocks reveal petroglyphs and distinctive twin buttes bulge from a grassy valley.
A string of U.S. officials has heard from those who advocate for broadening national monuments to protect the area s many archaeological and cultural sites, considered sacred to surrounding tribes, and those who fiercely oppose what they see as federal overreach.
On Thursday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will be the latest cabinet official to visit Bears Ears National Monument and the .
Utah s governor, congressional delegation meet with Interior Secretary on Bears Ears
Utah s governor, congressional delegation meet with Interior Secretary on Bears Ears
and last updated 2021-04-07 23:33:02-04
BLANDING, Utah â Governor Spencer Cox and members of Utah s congressional delegation had a private meeting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Wednesday night.
She is visiting Bears Ears National Monument before making a recommendation to President Biden about whether to undo President Trump s executive order shrinking the controversial monument.
In an interview this week with FOX 13, Gov. Cox said he expected the monument s size to increase again, but he hoped for an end to the ping-pong nature of Republican and Democratic administrations using the Antiquities Act to suit their purposes.