Trump needs to stop being a bully. The measure Mr. Trump is contemplating is to find a way to reverse the decision by President Obama to designate this land under the Antiquities Act as a monument to protect it. Just because Native Americans feel far more secure voting for Democrats, there is no reason to abuse the traditions, heritage and culture of these people.
By Kristina Johnston
Seven years ago, (click here) the Navajo tribal council in southeastern Utah started mapping the secret sites where medicine men and women forage for healing plants and Native people source wild foods. They wanted to make a case for protecting the landscape known as Bears Ears, a place sacred not only to their tribe but to many other tribes in the region, going back thousands of years. In one of his final acts in office, President Obama late last month created the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument, a move that proponents say will safeguard the area's ecology and guarantee food sovereignty for the region's Native Americans.
"Up to 20,000 Natives of various tribes live within 45 minutes of Bears Ears, including 10,000 Navajos that live just across the border in Arizona," says Gavin Noyes, director of the Utah Diné Bikéyah, the Navajo nonprofit that developed the initial draft of the monument proposal in 2013. "It's one of the wildest, most intact landscapes in Utah."
About 16,000 people live in San Juan County, where Bears Ears is located. Roughly half are Navajo, and many in the tribe lack running water and electricity, says Noyes. But the land still provides.
Women hike into the hills to gather wild onions and sumac berries for soup. They bundle juniper branches to burn, so they can stir the ashes into their family's blue corn mush. And they forage for piñon nuts, which saved tribes from starvation during times of drought....
Senator Orin Hatch is lying when he says President Obama has abused the Antiquities Act in designating "Bears Ears" as a national monument. To begin it is a unique land to protect. Precious.
The Antiquities Act is suppose to be used for such lands.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 (click here) is one of our nation's most important conservation tools. Used to safeguard and preserve federal lands and cultural and historical sites for all Americans to enjoy, 16 presidents have designated 157 national monuments under this authority....
This LAW has protected some of our most precious lands including, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, T. Roosevelt, 1908 (NPS), Jewel Cave National Monument, South Dakota, T. Roosevelt, 1908 (NPS), Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, Montana, T. Roosevelt, 1908 (State of Montana), Portion of Rio Grande National Forest (originally Wheeler), Colorado, T. Roosevelt, 1908 (BLM), Olympic National Park (originally Mount Olympus), Washington, T. Roosevelt, 1909 (NPS), Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, Oregon, W. Taft, 1909 (NPS), Zion National Park (originally Mukuntu-Weap), Utah, W. Taft, 1909 (NPS) and many others.
NPS - National Park Service
BLM - Bureau of Land Management
It is really amazing to realize the gross difference between those that protect and those that want to exploit it. Why is it unique medicinal plants and their land not valued as much as petroleum? It is disgusting to realize that cultural medicinal plants are not valued as much as the petroleum industry or mining. Why isn't unique land in the USA valued, what next oil derricks in the Grand Canyon?
Drilling and mining a huge disruptions to the land. They are simply little intrusions that go away or heal after the mess ends. These are permanent problems, ie: Oklahoma and seismic activity, and are completely undesirable.
Just outside Canyonlands National Park’s Island in the Sky district, (click here) oil has been a booming business since 2012 when Fidelity Exploration and Production brought in a gusher of an oil well. Fidelity built on their success by drilling more wells, and the resulting heavy truck traffic, pipeline construction, and proliferation of new drill pads on the doorstep of Canyonlands National Park and Deadhorse Point State Park has led some Moab locals to dub the area “Oil Land in the Sky.” For a time in 2012, Fidelity’s star well had the highest production in the continental United States at more than 1500 barrels per day, but with production declining dramatically, fracking the wells has apparently become Fidelity’s plan for maintaining profitability....
Greed. That is the policy of the Trump White House over and over. There is no other word that characterizes this president more.
You want to know why an oil man is in charge of the EPA? Greed. He wants the oil industry's money back. It is called corruption.
Mitigation Projects (click here)
Slawson will perform the following environmental mitigation projects that will provide additional reductions in ozone precursor emissions – VOCs and nitrogen oxides (NOx):
Installation and operation of $1.5 million in equipment to allow for auto-gauging of storage tanks so as to decrease the need to open thief hatches; and
Drill rig emission controls through one of three options for every drill rig used by Slawson in North Dakota while the consent decree is in effect: using electrification to power the rig, using a selective catalytic reduction module as an add on control for the drill rig exhaust, or retrofitting the engines. Slawson estimates that the drill rig controls will cost approximately $550,000 per drill rig.
If the operation is not as profitable as Slawson wants them, then get out of the business; many have.
