Over the last two days, Friends of Cedar observed the first and only meeting of the Monument Advisory Committee for the reduced Bears Ears National Monument that will occur before a final Monument Management Plan is released.
Despite the obvious love for the land shown by committee members and the good intentions of local agency officials, this process was not set up by the Administration to garner robust feedback from a variety of viewpoints. There simply was not enough time to begin to explore the complex and challenging issues raised in the 200+ page Draft Plan for managing an internationally significant landscape, sacred to Indigenous peoples, like Bears Ears.
Unlike successful advisory committees around the country that meet numerous times before a plan is released, this committee was not given a real opportunity to shape the plan. Rather, we believe the Administration stood up the group solely to check a procedural box in the legal process. In the end, the Administration received a rubber stamp from the committee in favor of what we have called a plan for a “Monument in Name Only” – one that lacks the kinds of protections afforded to other Monuments and National Conservation Lands around the United States.
FCM expects the plan to be released in August or early September. There will be no public comment period on the final plan, which could be in effect for years. A 30-day window for formal protests will begin the day the plan is issued, and the Administration hopes to have the plan in place by November.
Previously, FCM has expressed concerns over the makeup of the committee, which contains not one member supportive of Monument protections for the larger Bears Ears cultural landscape.
FCM has asked people to imagine for a moment that 54,000 people voted differently in the last election and the Clinton Administration was preparing a management plan for the full 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument. Imagine that Administration rushing through a management plan that proposes the most restrictive, burdensome, and unnecessary prescriptions in every element of the plan. Then, after they’ve written the full plan, the Administration names a stakeholder advisory group that includes no one who opposed the monument, not a single person.
That scenario would not be fair to ranchers, motorized recreation enthusiasts and others who also have important viewpoints. It wouldn’t be equitable or balanced. FCM believes a robust discussion involving all viewpoints is important to a reasonable, workable plan for the landscape that protects cultural sites and preserves traditional uses.