At noon on Monday, June 12, Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, briefed the press on his interim report on the Bears Ears National Monument which he delivered to President Trump over the weekend.
After clarifying that the earlier claims that he’d postponed the report were false, Zinke went on to emphasis the amount of research, discussion with state, local, and tribal officials, and public comments that went into the suggestions in the report.
Among the biggest takeaways from the report were Zinke’s request that the President ask Congress to act to enable tribal co-management of the monument. He also suggested that the 1.5 million acre monument should be restructured including the re-designation of some areas as national recreation or national conservation areas.
According to the memorandum, “rather than designating an entire area encompassing almost 1.5 million acres as a national monument, it would have been more appropriate to identify and separate the areas that have significant objects to be protected.”
Secretary Zinke’s recommendations to the President were:
- Revision of the boundaries through appropriate authority, including the exercise of presidential authority under the act
- The president request congressional authority to enable tribal co-management of designated cultural areas within the monument boundaries
- Congress make more appropriate conservation designations within the current monument boundaries such as national recreation areas or national conservation areas
- Congress clarify the intent of the management practices of wilderness or Wilderness Study Areas within the boundaries
You can read the full interim Memorandum here “Interim Report EO 13792”
