ST. GEORGE — Utah’s leading state and congressional officials issued a joint statement Wednesday welcoming newly confirmed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland following her announcement that she plans to visit the state next month to see the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
“Her trip to Utah will allow her the opportunity to speak with the people who live and work on the lands, whose voices may otherwise go unheard, before making any recommendations to the President,” the joint statement reads.
Haaland’s announcement comes following her Senate confirmation as President Joe Biden’s secretary of the Department of the Interior on Monday.
It also comes on the heels of members of the Utah congressional delegation being able to meet with the Interior Department following a previous joint-letter sent to the White House asking the Biden administration to work with Congress regarding Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
On the first day of his presidency, Biden signed an executive order instructing the Interior Department to research whether the two controversy-laden national monuments should be restored to their original sizes.
In December 2017, President Donald Trump signed executive orders reducing the size of both monuments. Bears Ears was taken from 1.3 million acres to just under 202,000 acres, while Grand Staircase-Escalante went from 1.9 million to just under 1 million acres.
Since then, there have been efforts made by individuals and conservation groups to restore the original boundaries.
When the March 5 joint-letter from Utah’s congressional delegation and state leaders was sent to the president, Haaland had yet to be confirmed as the new Interior Secretary, which worried Utah’s officials as the original 60-day deadline for the review was approached.
They expressed concern that Haaland wouldn’t have enough time the adequately research and review the situation surrounding the monuments, let alone visit them.
That deadline has since been extended, with Haaland planning to visit Utah’s national monuments in April.
The joint-statement reads, in part:
As Utah leaders, we urged the administration to extend the 60-day timeline outlined in President Biden’s Executive Order calling for a review of our national monuments and invited Secretary Haaland to visit Utah to tour the monuments and engage state, local, and tribal leaders. We are encouraged that the administration has extended the deadline for review of Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments, and we welcome Secretary Haaland’s decision to travel to Utah, tour the monuments in question, and receive meaningful input from the local elected officials and residents.
Native American tribes supported the creation of Bears Ears by President Barack Obama, but Republican state leaders had railed against it. Grand Staircase has been a monument for longer, but it had long been a point of contention for conservative state leaders who considered both monuments federal government overreach.
The reductions made by Trump paved the way for potential coal mining and oil and gas drilling on lands that used to be off limits, though activity since Trump’s action has been limited because of market dynamics.
Haaland will be the third Interior Secretary to visit Utah’s contested national monuments within the last six years. Sally Jewel, the interior secretary under Obama, visited what would become the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, following by Trump’s first interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, in 2017.
Haaland is expected to make her recommendations concerning the national monument following her visit.
The complete statement from Utah’s state and congressional leaders is posted below:
Today, U.S. Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Representatives Chris Stewart (R-Utah), John Curtis (R-Utah), Burgess Owens (R-Utah), and Blake Moore (R-Utah), Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Senate President Stuart Adams, House Speaker Brad Wilson and Attorney General Sean Reyes issued the following statement in response to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s announcement of her upcoming visit to Utah to tour the Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments.
“As Utah leaders, we urged the administration to extend the 60-day timeline outlined in President Biden’s Executive Order calling for a review of our national monuments and invited Secretary Haaland to visit Utah to tour the monuments and engage state, local, and tribal leaders. We are encouraged that the administration has extended the deadline for review of Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments, and we welcome Secretary Haaland’s decision to travel to Utah, tour the monuments in question, and receive meaningful input from the local elected officials and residents. Her trip to Utah will allow her the opportunity to speak with the people who live and work on the lands, whose voices may otherwise go unheard, before making any recommendations to the President. We are also confident that this trip will successfully highlight the need for a permanent legislative solution for determining appropriate boundaries for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, with statutory protections to prevent abuses under the Antiquities Act for the State of Utah. We look forward to continuing our work on these issues with Secretary Haaland after her visit.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.