Less than one year ago, President Barack Obama designated two areas in Utah and Nevada as national monuments:
Today, I am designating two new national monuments in the desert landscapes of southeastern Utah and southern Nevada to protect some of our country’s most important cultural treasures, including abundant rock art, archeological sites, and lands considered sacred by Native American tribes. Today’s actions will help protect this cultural legacy and will ensure that future generations are able to enjoy and appreciate these scenic and historic landscapes. Importantly, today I have also established a Bears Ears Commission to ensure that tribal expertise and traditional knowledge help inform the management of the Bears Ears National Monument and help us to best care for its remarkable national treasures.
Statement of President Barack Obama (Dec. 28, 2016)
In 1996, President Bill Clinton designated the Grand Staircase-Escalante as a National Monument:
The fact that we stand here is due, in large part, to the Antiquities Act of 1906. The law gives the President the authority to protect Federal lands of extraordinary cultural, historic, and scientific value, and in 1908 that's just what Theodore Roosevelt did when he protected the Grand Canyon. Since then, several Presidents of both parties, Republicans and Democrats, have worked to preserve places that we now take for granted as part of our own unchanging heritage: Bryce Canyon, Zion, Glacier Bay, Olympic, Grand Teton. These places many of you have been to, and I've been to many of them myself. I thank goodness that the Antiquities Act was on the books and that Presidents, without regard to party, used it to protect them for all of us and for generations to come.
Today we add a new name to that list: the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Remarks of President Bill Clinton (September 1996)
Tomorrow, so-called Pr*sident Trump will travel to Utah for the purpose of greatly reducing the side of these national treasures. Please read Meteor Blades' diary about this here. Why? Apparently because he thinks he can.
This awful person -- who had the temerity to stand before a portrait of Andrew Jackson and make a racist joke while supposedly honoring WWII heroes whose bravery saved countless lives — has no respect for America or Americans. His Pr*sidency has been an affront and assault on patriotism, civility, history and values. The people will not stand for this.
Protests against this latest wreckage took place this weekend. More are planned tomorrow.
Downloadable protest signs:
Gallery of Photos of Protests Here
Americans support #BearEars and #GrandStaircaseEscalante.
Let your voice be heard. Read more here.