By Christa Sadler
I attended the Kane County Board of Supervisors’ meeting discussing the resolution to redraw the boundary of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Approximately 125 people attended — enough that the meeting was moved from the commissioners’ chamber to the courtroom. About 75 percent of the room consisted of locals in support of an unchanged monument boundary. Support of the resolution came largely from local ranching families, many of which have run cattle in the region for generations.
Without exception, every person who stood to talk spoke of their love for the land, their work to manage and protect it, and their desire to maintain a way of life that is more than just a job. On all sides of the issue, there were people who agreed that we could likely come to a consensus about managing the land that would provide for everyone’s needs — and keep the boundaries of the monument intact.
Comments made it clear that grazing and the monument are not necessarily mutually exclusive and that cooperative discussions about how to do this would be a positive thing. There were also several people who expressed their fear that removing lands from monument protection would open them up to extractive industry.
The resolution passed as written and without any discussion on the part of the commissioners. It now goes to Washington to support Rep. Mike Noel’s attempt to gut one of southern Utah’s most spectacular pieces of land. If Congress acts on this resolution and removes land from monument protection, any chance to work together towards its protection will be taken out of the hands of the locals — all of whom love and want to care for it.
Enter the fact that both the Senate and the House of Representatives have introduced resolutions (SJR 15 and HJR 44) to reduce the amount of public input and information that can go into any BLM resource management planning. It seems somewhat hypocritical to complain that there was not enough local input in the formation of the monument and then support legislation that will result in less of that input from local communities, businesses, and ranchers about what they want their landscapes to look like.
The logical end to this path is that land removed from monument protection will be leased to the highest bidder for some form of mineral extraction. Whether it remains in BLM hands or reverts to the state, the way of life that all of us treasure — as well as our land — are in danger.
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