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GLIMPSES OF HARD-EDGED ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICKING IN SOUTHEASTERN UTAH
Unfiltered comments of environmental activists, incendiary remarks of a political leader and their tacit acceptance by his prominent tribal-affiliated nonprofit, and dodgy electioneering
(Much of this appears in the October/November edition of the Canyon Country Zephyr, an online publication that focuses on southeastern Utah. I added a bit more after the Zephyr’s publication deadline.)
BLUFF, UTAH — On the road home from Monument Valley recently I stopped in at Friends of Cedar Mesa’s Bears Ears Education Center in Bluff, Utah, its home base.
It’s housed in a nondescript former bar renovated by the nonprofit on the main drag through town, between the upscale Desert Rose Resort, Recapture Lodge, a smattering of restaurants and gas stations, and a re-creation for tourists of historical Fort Bluff.
I wanted to find out what kind of information people get when they just walk in off the street. Is it factually correct? Does it align with information from other visitor’s centers in the area? Is the information presented as one viewpoint among many on how to preserve sacred archeological artifacts and unique geological formations?
Friends’ mission is about protecting those sacred archeological artifacts from a variety of threats, including tens of thousands of visitors who have descended upon the area over the past couple of years thanks in part to publicity generated by nonprofits such as Friends in attempts to protect those sacred archeological artifacts. The hordes are expected to just keep coming. Fodor’s, the popular travel guide publisher, ranked Bears Ears at the top of its list of recommended places to visit in 2019.
“Already, many sensitive sites in the monument are getting hammered — resulting in unauthorized new trails, vandalized rock art, pottery shards picked up by looters,” according to Lyle Belenquah, a Hopi citizen, river guide and former National Park Service archaeologist who was quoted in a High Country News report.
“It’s managed by Google because that’s the only place people are getting their information,” Josh Ewing…
