For Immediate Release
January 16, 2025
Contact: Laura Welp, Southern Utah Director, Western Watersheds Project laura@westernwatersheds.org 435-899-0204
Bears Ears National Monument Releases New Resource Management Plan
KANAB, Utah – The Bureau of Land Management has released its final Resource Management Plan (RMP) for Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. The monument was established at the request of a coalition of five Indigenous groups and is the first monument to be co-managed by tribes and the federal government. The monument was established by President Obama in 2016 but was substantially reduced in 2017 by the Trump administration. Those boundaries were then reinstated by President Biden in 2021.
Livestock grazing, and the damage it causes to monument values, continues virtually unchanged. Much of the area closed to grazing in the plan did not support livestock anyway, so the reductions in the plan were only on paper. The plan could have called for conducting land health surveys on grazing allotments within a ten-year timeframe. Instead, the plan only requires land health evaluations for a handful of allotments, leaving the rest without timely evaluations. Most haven’t been assessed for decades.
“We are especially disappointed that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service did not take this opportunity to reform livestock management to ensure better protections of the resources the Proclamation protects,” said Laura Welp, Southern Utah Director for WWP and former botanist for BLM. “We remain committed to fighting for additional grazing reforms, and will stay focused on the Bears Ears National Monument for as long as it takes to get there.”
The plan mandates that vegetation management be conducted in cooperation with the Bears Ears Coalition and Tribal Nations and prioritize traditional Indigenous techniques and natural processes for vegetation management. There is also a provision banning destructive chaining on the monument. However, we remain concerned that the plan allows the use of other deforestation techniques, and permits the use of non-native plants.
WWP applauds the inclusion of the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition in drafting the plan. “For too long, indigenous voices have not been included in public land management,“ said Welp. “This plan rectifies that omission. It marks a historic achievement in Indigenous-led conservation, one that we hope will be a model for future conservation efforts.“
Public support for monuments remains strong. Over 20,000 public comments on the plan were submitted earlier this year, most in support of the Tribes’ Preferred alternative in the draft RMP, showcasing widespread support for protecting Bears Ears and emphasizing the importance of Tribal involvement in conservation efforts. A recent poll of Utah residents across the political spectrum also shows broad bipartisan public approval of national monuments and the protections they bring to the landscape’s geology, paleontology, wildlife, and plants, and the cultural and spiritual heritage of Indigenous people.
“We stand with the majority of Americans in defending the Bears Ears National Monument from politically motivated reductions that no one wants,” Welp concluded.
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