Trump Administration to Propose Management Plan for Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument
WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Land Management is expected to release its final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and proposed Monument Management Plan (MMP) tomorrow for Bears Ears National Monument. These will undergo administrative protest and consistency review periods before becoming final.
The following is a statement from Kate Desormeau, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“We’ll carefully review the management plans for Bears Ears, but we don’t even need to see the details to object, because this whole endeavor of shrinking a national monument to a shadow of its former size is illegal. President Trump lacked power under the Antiquities Act to roll back Bears Ears. BLM should protect the whole monument established in 2016, and we’re fighting in court to reinstate those original boundaries.”
BACKGROUND:
Bears Ears National Monument was established as a national monument in December 2016, and President Trump issued an executive order in December 2017 attempting to shrink the monument. NRDC and its partners sued the Trump Administration in January 2018 in federal court in Washington to challenge the Trump administration’s move.
Last August, BLM issued a draft management plan. The forthcoming MMP applies to only the 15% of Bears Ears National Monument that President Trump’s order left intact.
To read more about Bears Ears, here is a blog by Sharon Buccino, director of Lands for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC