THE INDEPENDENT

Once a Monument Always a Monument: Bears Ears

By: Faith Owen

Monday, February 5, 2018 | Number of views (1936)

Current president, Donald Trump, wishes to reform Bears Ears National Monument, downsizing the land and changing its name. Bears Ears, located in Utah, is a National Monument that was first protected and deemed to be a monument by the Obama administration back in 2016.  

 

At at the end of 2017, the 1.35 million acres of protected land was downsized, due to new legislation, to only around 200,000 acres, Dr. Andrew Gulliford of the history department at Fort Lewis College said. Bears Ears will no longer be the name of this monument. Instead there will be two seperate monument with names referring to specific places on the land, The Shash Jaa National Monument and the Indian Creek National Monument, Gulliford said.

 

Gulliford mentioned that the state of Utah relies heavily on recreation for its profits and not on resources from the land itself. However, uranium mine fields are prominent around and on the land where Bears Ears is located. Now this will make Utah  more dependent on resources of the land instead of recreation, Gulliford said.

 

Uranium is a rare resource in the United States, therefore, it is seen as a great value, Gulliford said. This may have been the motivation for President Trump to revoke the title Bears Ears had as being a national monument.

 

Bears Ears should not be considered for revamping or changing. There are so many resources in our country that have been overly utilized, stripping much of the land into a vast field of nothingness. Once a monument, always a monument, no person of any authority should be able to strip that away.

 

This is the issue; if it is not happening in our own backyard, we have no recollection that it even exists. We are the future. Therefore, attentiveness is the ticket for affecting a real amount of change. Just because Bears Ears is in a different state, does not mean that it is any less of an issue. Citizens must start paying attention to real issues that are happening in our own country, not just our own small town of Durango.

 

Getting involved is easier than we make it out to be. There are so many different programs to join and resources that are available in order for us to make an effective change. Although Durango is small, its impact can be tremendous if its citizens advocate for problems that are occuring on a national scale.

 
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