Ping-pong protection: Is anything on the horizon that will truly safeguard Bears Ears?

Haven’t we been down this road before?

In 2015, San Juan County Public Lands Council and Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition proposed protections for the Bears Ears region of southeast Utah. Then, just before leaving office in 2016, President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument. The next year, President Trump shrunk it. Now, President Biden’s Interior Department will “review” the whole mess.

“Frankly, Utah had a chance with the Public Lands Initiative to do something that was more collaborative (to prevent the Bears Ears designation) and they failed. So the fact that we as a state couldn’t make it happen doesn’t prevent the president (Biden) from using the authority that has been delegated to (the president’s) office for more than 100 years.” (John Ruple, University of Utah law professor)

Sounds to me like a good ole fashion Bronx Cheer pointed in the general direction of representative democracy. One and done?

Nobody disputes President Biden’s authority under the Antiquities Act. Seems to me the question is whether its use would help bridge the cultural and political divide that has stymied preservation efforts. It’s a question, seems to me, that’s already been answered: It won’t.

As conservative radio opinionator Paul Harvey used to say, “Here’s the rest of the story.” In this case, it’s at least a part of the story that’s mostly gone unreported.

Tommy Beaudreau, chief of staff of former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell

According to Tommy Beaudreau, chief of staff of former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, President Obama’s monument echoes what San Juan County’s Lands Council came up with through a lengthy public process. “We tried to hew to the PLI (Lands Council’s) proposal. We couldn’t argue with a straight face that there wasn’t consensus about the area.”

Beaudreau’s comments on the politics of monument creation came starting at about 45:00 in this this video. He was speaking at a seminar held at Johns Hopkins University in April 2018.

The San Juan County Public Lands Council was a local stakeholder group with a wide range of interests and included a representative of tribal interests, longtime Navajo politico Mark Maryboy, until his interest waned as tribal activists created a parallel proposal that attracted national media attention and support from Democratic lawmakers with its more compelling story line: “The first truly Native American national…