** Tribes call for immediate action on Bears Ears National Monument
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Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah protects one of the most significant cultural landscapes in the United States | B ([link removed]) ob Wick, Bureau of Land Management ([link removed])

A coalition of Native American tribes has called on President Biden to take immediate action ([link removed]) to restore protections to Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, which the Trump administration cut by 85 percent.

President Biden campaigned on reversing the rollbacks of such national monument protections—including in nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante—but has yet to take action to do so, despite receiving a recommendation from Interior Secretary Haaland months ago ([link removed]) .

Bears Ears is a sacred landscape for the tribes that compose the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, and is composed of stunning canyons and mesas that are home to cliff dwellings, rock art, dinosaur fossils, and countless cultural treasures ([link removed]) . But much of it is at risk. “Each day that passes without national monument protection for numerous sacred sites and irreplaceable cultural resources risks desecration, looting, vandalism, and misinformed visitation to an area that contains the exact kind of antiquities that inspired the creation of the Antiquities Act,” the letter to Biden from the tribal coalition reads ([link removed]) . “These artifacts, considered by us to be messages our ancestors meant for us to see and incorporate as lessons into our present, are literally being erased.”

Reinstating the monuments—as well as establishing new ones—is popular. 84% of Westerners ([link removed]) support creating new protected areas such as national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges, and tribal protected areas, while 77% of Westerners ([link removed]) (and 74% of Utahans ([link removed]) ) support restoring national monument protections to lands in the West. National monuments created under the Antiquities Act aren’t just popular, they’re also beneficial to local communities. Research has found ([link removed]) that national monuments often increase the number of businesses and jobs in nearby communities, expanding local economies, population, employment, and income
([link removed]) .

Reinstating Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments needs to be only the beginning. President Biden has an opportunity to define our modern conservation legacy ([link removed]) and join the ranks of our greatest conservation leaders. The time to protect more lands is now ([link removed]) , and there are awe-inspiring outdoor places worthy of further protection ([link removed]) under the Antiquities Act all over the country.
Quick hits


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Yale Climate Connections ([link removed])


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** Push for a carbon tax collides with political realities
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Three men charged after leaving viewing platform to feed bears in Alaskan national park
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The Hill ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed])


** Fires threatening Sequoia National Forest continue to grow
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KTLA ([link removed])


** Opinion: New Mexico Governor's 30x30 order will protect waters
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Santa Fe New Mexican ([link removed])


** New Mexico considers revenue options for trust land besides oil, gas
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Albuquerque Journal ([link removed])
Quote of the day
We have tried to be patient and respectful as we await your decision on restoration. However, the longer action is not taken, real harm, much permanent, is occurring on this sacred landscape.”

—Clark W. Tenakhongva, vice chairman of the Hopi Tribe, and Henry Stevens Jr., a representative of the Navajo Nation, on reinstating protections for Bears Ears National Monument, W ([link removed]) ashington Post ([link removed])
Picture this


** @I ([link removed]) nterior ([link removed])
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Ladies and gentlethems, we give you the REAL stars of Fat Bear Week...the salmon. At @KatmaiNPS ([link removed]) in Alaska, salmon are the lifeblood of a fertile coastal ecosystem. At Brooks Falls, the salmon must run a gauntlet of hungry bears before proceeding further inland to spawn.

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