If you’ve been to the Bears Ears region in southeastern Utah, you know how beautiful and unspoiled it appears, but it’s important for more than just scenic views. It’s a living cultural landscape where village sites, rock art, landforms, water sources, and plants and animals work together as the foundation for evolving and vibrant Indigenous cultures. Bears Ears National Monument was protected in 2016 only to be unlawfully shrunk by 85 percent in 2017. In slashing the monument, President Trump erroneously proclaimed that the things he cut were “not unique” and “not of significant scientific or historic interest.”
It’s easy to see just how untrue that statement is. Here are five places that the former president deemed not unique and not significant. They were all cut from Bears Ears, and they deserve to have protections restored.
TIM PETERSON
It’s the subject of some controversy, but this is what may be the oldest rock art in North America (colored in blue on the right). It’s thought to be a depiction of a Pleistocene mammoth made at least 11,000 years ago. Though Western archaeologists and rock art enthusiasts quarrel over its exact age, it’s still unique!
TIM PETERSON
These stunning petroglyph-covered boulders in the remote far west of the original Bears Ears National Monument may have connections to both fossils and the Grand Canyon, depicting split twig figurines of an extinct species called Harrington’s mountain goat.
TIM PETERSON
Connecting past and present, these petroglyphs of desert bighorn sheep mirror animals that still live in the area today.
TIM PETERSON
Pictographs (painted images) of figures, hand prints, and geometric designs grace the wall near a granary in a remote canyon cut from Bears Ears in 2017.
TIM PETERSON
This cliff dwelling in a cave on the far eastern border of Bears Ears National Monument may be the highest elevation cliff dwelling in the region. Now that’s unique!
If you’re interested in visiting places like these, it’s important to do so with respect and reverence. These are not just places to play. Read more on how to visit respectfully ›
All of the places pictured here are protected from vandalism and looting by law, just as all cultural and historic resources are, but national monument designation carries with it special and elevated protections. The preservation of cultural, historic, and natural resources for which monuments are designated must be at the top of the priority list in managing monument lands. In other places on public lands, cultural resources are often identified, documented, then avoided or even destroyed as mining, clearcutting, domestic livestock grazing, or other projects are approved by federal land managers. Bears Ears deserves renewed protection, and it needs it now. Threats are increasing from careless and increasing visitation, the staking of new uranium mining claims, and pressure to lease lands for fossil fuel development. Please urge President Biden to act today.
It’s one thing to make commitments to learn and do better by those who have been wronged. It’s quite another to actually follow through.
Under the Trump administration, a so-called “strategic uranium reserve” was proposed with the support of mining companies, including one that operates near the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears National Monument. That company, Energy Fuels Resources, would potentially pocket millions in taxpayer dollars for selling uranium to the federal government at above-market prices. The concept is so ill-conceived that in December 2020, a Government Accountability Office report found that the justification for requesting the funds was inadequate.
Nevertheless, seed money for the project in the amount of $75 million was tucked away and passed in a massive government spending bill at the end of 2020. It’s since been up to the Biden administration to decide whether to pursue that program further. The Biden administration is now considering a path that is counter to the promises it made to frontline communities, especially Indigenous communities, and the consequences are likely to be especially steep across the Grand Canyon and Bears Ears regions.
This is concerning because the U.S. has no shortage of uranium. Until recently, the government was actually getting rid of excess uranium. And even if we did have a shortage, a uranium reserve wouldn’t do much to address it. While keeping existing and problematic uranium facilities afloat at taxpayer expense, the actual amount of uranium that the government could obtain each year would be a fraction of what existing nuclear utilities use annually. And the reason for that is the same reason that U.S. uranium producers aren’t doing well to begin with: U.S. uranium deposits are poorer quality and thus more expensive to mine than, for instance, deposits in Australia and Canada.
Putting the Grand Canyon, Bears Ears, and Native communities on the frontlines of uranium mining operations at risk simply to pad the pockets of multinational uranium companies — at taxpayer expense — is clearly at odds with the Biden administration’s avowed commitment to environmental justice.
Despite a brief moment of hope when the administration omitted the program from its 2022 budget proposal in May, in a Senate hearing on June 15, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm revealed that the Department of Energy would soon be starting a process to create a reserve. And on August 10, the department took the first step by opening a 30-day “request for information” to gather public input on the creation of a uranium reserve.
What a reserve means for the Grand Canyon, Bears Ears
BLAKE MCCORD
If a uranium reserve is created as the Trump administration proposed, it could mean spending $1.5 billion over a decade to subsidize new uranium production from existing facilities in the United States. While it’s a good thing that the Biden administration seems uninterested in spurring new operations, existing uranium facilities are already environmental and environmental justice nightmares.
One of the companies most excited about the concept of a reserve is Energy Fuels Resources. The company lobbied to slash Bears Ears National Monument and owns the White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah, just outside the original monument boundaries. The company also owns Canyon Mine (newly renamed “Pinyon Plain Mine”), a uranium mine near the south rim of the Grand Canyon that the government currently treats as exempt from a temporary mining ban — a ban that tribes and local communities are working to make permanent.
The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill in the country. It has also pivoted its business model to become a commercial radioactive waste disposal site. The mill sits just a few miles north and upslope — as groundwater flows — of the White Mesa Ute community, which has long been concerned about the impacts community members will face now and after the mill closes, leaving behind hundreds of acres of toxic and radioactive waste. There is confirmed shallow groundwater contamination beneath the mill, and monitoring wells around the mill have been showing increasing levels of contamination.
A uranium reserve would undoubtedly mean more business for the mill since no matter where uranium is mined, the mill would likely have a hand in processing any conventional ore into a more concentrated form called “yellowcake.” The Department of Energy has also stated that it plans to accept uranium produced from “alternate feed” material, which is the substance of the mill’s radioactive waste processing and disposal business.
Canyon Mine was permitted in the late 1980s, but despite ongoing groundwater flooding and the resulting threat of uranium contamination problems, it has yet to produce any ore commercially. That’s because the cost of mining the ore is higher than what the company can sell it for. A uranium reserve could lead the government to buy uranium from Canyon Mine that no one else would otherwise buy. Canyon Mine sits within the Red Butte Traditional Cultural Property, a site sacred to the Havasupai Tribe. The groundwater problems at the mine also pose a threat to the Havasupai Tribe’s sole water source in their remote village of Supai, inside a side canyon of the Grand Canyon.
A reserve is counter to Biden’s promises to Indigenous communities
Among the council’s final recommendations is a call to “ensure that 100% of the investments do no harm to frontline communities. Using funds to add to cumulative pollution only to use other funds to mitigate the impacts is a losing proposition...” The council also advises the administration to take “bold action to sunset investment by 2030” in nuclear energy. Yet, the Department of Energy claims that “[r]evitalizing the U.S. nuclear fuel supply infrastructure...would support environmental justice initiatives, prioritize addressing long-standing and persistent racial injustice by targeting 40 percent of the benefits of climate and clean infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities…” It’s difficult to see how, especially given the disturbing legacy of contamination and human health risks the uranium industry has left across the Navajo Nation and numerous other Indigenous nations and communities across the country, which are still dealing with the consequences of uranium contamination left over from the last time the federal government subsidized a uranium boom. In fact, creating a uranium reserve would subsidize uranium companies who are perpetrating environmental injustices toward Indigenous communities, including at Canyon Mine and the White Mesa Mill.
This is backward, but you can help
You can help by letting the Biden administration know that a uranium reserve is counter to the commitments the administration has made to Indigenous and other frontline communities and to the requests of the very advisory council it appointed to guide federal investments that are environmentally just.
Send your comments to the Biden administration before the September 10, 2021 deadline.
We all use rare earth elements in our modern lives. While not actually rare, rare earth elements (the 15 elements on the periodic table known as the lanthanides, plus two others) are used in products ranging from electric car batteries to military weapons systems. China produces the bulk of the world’s supply, and investors and U.S. government officials would like to spur more domestic production. What does that have to do with an old uranium mill on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument and a few miles from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community? Glad you asked.
To avoid closing down, uranium mill seeks out rare earths
Energy Fuels (the Canadian company whose American subsidiary owns the White Mesa uranium mill) is getting into the rare earth element business, having begun small-scale production of what it calls “an intermediate rare earth product” in March 2021. The new venture has received no specific environmental analysis, and regulators haven’t accepted public comment. The hype around the effort has grown primarily in publications aimed at investors, and an Energy Fuels executive explained why:
[The] White Mesa [Mill] barely makes money. It’s always at risk of permanent closure. –Curtis Moore, VP of Marketing and Corporate Development for Energy Fuels Resources (USA)
The mill opened in 1980, having acquired permits based on a plan to process uranium ore from around the region for about 15 years then shut down and clean up. More than 40 years later, the mill is still operating. Why?
Making millions by accepting low-level radioactive waste
When local uranium became too cheap to keep the mill running profitably, the mill’s owners began to seek new sources of income. In the late 1980s, the White Mesa Mill began accepting what it called “alternate feeds,” often for a fee. These feeds are, in reality, toxic and radioactive waste streams from around the nation and Canada that contain some uranium. These wastes have come from former defense production facilities, uranium conversion plants, and (you guessed it) from rare earth element processors. After Energy Fuels Resources extracts whatever quantity of uranium these waste streams contain, usually in small amounts, the company dumps the rest of the materials in waste pits near the mill. Energy Fuels disclosed in 2020 that this alternate feed business makes the company between $5 and $15 million per year.
Deals signed with companies in Georgia and Tennessee
Now, seeking to extend the working life of its old uranium mill even further, Energy Fuels Resources announced in 2020 that the mill would begin producing mixed rare earth carbonate from monazite sands shipped from Georgia. The company has also signed an agreement to purchase monazite sands from a yet-to-be completed mining project in Tennessee.
Energy Fuels Resources says it will process 5 million pounds of monazite sands in 2021 and ramp up to 30 million pounds a year if it can find the supply. The company has received taxpayer money from the U.S. Department of Energy to subsidize its rare earths business to the tune of $1.75 million.
Putting Utah’s environment at risk without public input
TIM PETERSON
Why haven’t you heard about an opportunity to weigh in on this new business? Because in addition to rare earths, monazite sands also contain uranium, and the mill’s owner has asserted that those sands are “uranium ore,” with Utah regulators’ blessing, as long as the mill extracts uranium from the sands.
Before granting their blessing, however, state regulators raised an important point: the mill is licensed to produce uranium, vanadium, and, if profitable, copper, not rare earths. “The process of extracting a rare earth mineral concentrate has not been environmentally evaluated for the White Mesa Uranium Mill,” regulators said. Utah regulators ultimately acquiesced to Energy Fuels Resources’ plans without giving the public a chance to have its say.
There’s another wrinkle. An “intermediate rare earth product” is not actually what manufacturers need to make their products. Because the mill cannot separate individual metals from the concentrate, another facility must complete the process to produce useable rare earth elements. Where will that product go? Halfway across the globe to Estonia — to NPM Silmet OÜ, the same metals processing plant already looking to ship its radioactive waste to the mill. Energy Fuels Resources announced the first container (approximately 40,000 pounds) of an expected 15 containers holding rare earth carbonate was on its way to Estonia in July 2021.
The mill owner says it is evaluating the potential to further refine its intermediate product “at the White Mesa Mill, or nearby,” and has hired a French consultant to help “begin designing rare earth separation capabilities at the White Mesa Mill.” But profitable American rare earth separation has proven elusive; much larger companies have tried and failed. Specific to White Mesa, Dr. Kristin Vekasi, a professor at the University of Maine who studies the geopolitics of supply chains, said, “it will be hard for Energy Fuels to justify building a facility to further process the metals without China limiting exports or new government subsidies.”
Does this all seem like an elaborate house of cards? An investment website offered its take on the new rare earth endeavor: “Yes, we can think of this as an attempt at a Hail Mary pass by an old uranium mill.”
Like the proverbial cat, the White Mesa Mill seems to have nine lives. The new rare earths venture may breathe more life into a uranium mill that should have closed long ago, and a longer life means even more waste for the mill’s pits. Transforming an old uranium mill into a new rare metals processor without substantial analysis or public comment deserves scrutiny, as does the potential impact of rare metals processing on groundwater and the White Mesa Ute community. Right now, the public has no say. But we should.
As the Bureau of Land Management makes plans to mitigate a large pile of abandoned toxic and radioactive mine waste inside the original Bears Ears National Monument, Utah’s Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program is doing award-winning work cleaning up lands in and around the original monument. So far, the program has sealed dozens of abandoned mine shafts and removed toxic materials in the Fry Canyon and Red Canyon uranium districts. Now, it’s turning to work on the White Canyon and Deer Flat uranium districts (both within the Bears Ears’ original boundaries) to enhance public safety. It’s part of a 400-square-mile project to begin to heal the land from a Cold War uranium boom that took place in the Bears Ears region from 1947 to 1970, when the U.S. government was heavily subsidizing uranium mining to build its nuclear weapons stockpile.
New uranium mine planned in Bears Ears
Though most active uranium mining in the region ended when government subsidies ended, former President Trump’s unlawful reduction of Bears Ears in 2017 opened a door to new uranium mining. In spring 2021, a plan of operations was filed for a new uranium mine in the original Bears Ears National Monument on Deer Flat, in exactly the area that is the subject of ongoing cleanup. That’s why it’s so important for President Biden to act now to restore and expand Bears Ears.
The plan for the new mine calls for digging out a mine portal, constructing vent shafts, disturbing ground for a man camp, and widening roads before gating at least one of them to lock out the public on Deer Flat above Natural Bridges National Monument and inside the original Bears Ears. That’s exactly the disturbance that the multiyear, multimillion-dollar Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program is trying to reverse.
Mining public lands, paying zero royalties into public coffers
Hardrock mineral extraction (including uranium) is governed by the General Mining Act of 1872, an antiquated law meant to encourage colonization and westward expansion. It allows anyone to stake a mining claim on federal lands, then if the claimant proves a profit can be made, to mine publicly owned minerals without paying royalties.
This differs from oil and gas leasing (also in the news in June when industry nominated more than 40,000 acres of lands cut from Bears Ears) which requires royalty payment, agency review, and public involvement before leases are let and before drilling can begin. The Bureau of Land Management can simply say “no” when asked to offer a parcel for an oil and gas lease, but the 1872 mining law has no such provision. According to Earthworks, “[f]ederal land managers are on record declaring that the 1872 Mining Law gives them no choice but to permit mining… If you hold a mining claim, the federal government treats that claim as a right-to-mine.”
Uranium mining and new mining claims in Bears Ears
Easy Peasy mine shaft.TIM PETERSON
When national monuments are designated, no new mining claims can be staked on national monument lands. When former President Trump gutted Bears Ears, he also allowed for mining claims and oil and gas leasing on lands he cut from the monument. That has led to the filing of new uranium and vanadium claims at Bears Ears — at least 14 since the monument was slashed, six of them just since March 2021.
One such claim led to the excavation of the Easy Peasy Mine in 2018. There, 30 tons of ore were excavated, and now, due to low uranium prices, the mine sits idle. The miner at Easy Peasy is the same one who recently filed the plan of operations for the new mine on Deer Flat, and he told the Washington Post in April 2021 that “a restored Bears Ears monument would make Easy Peasy hard — if not impossible. ‘There is layer after layer after layer of red tape and regulation in this country,’ [the miner] said. ‘And that monument will be one more big blanket of red tape.’”
An Indigenous take on uranium — leave it alone
When Bears Ears National Monument was designated in 2016, it became the first national monument in America to honor Indigenous traditional knowledge. “Such knowledge is, itself, a resource to be protected and used in understanding and managing this landscape sustainably for generations to come,” reads President Obama’s proclamation.
While there are many knowledge systems at play at Bears Ears, one stands out for its specific understanding of uranium. Diné (Navajo) people know uranium as “leetso” (literally translated as “yellow brown” or “yellow dirt”), but it’s more than that. Leetso is a being that interferes with one’s ability to enjoy a successful life. Leetso is also a reptile, a monster, buried and not to be disturbed.
The uranium boom on the Colorado Plateau from the 1940s to the 1970s disturbed leetso, and the consequences continue in the form of cancers among those who mined uranium, and elevated health risks for those whose land, air, and water still bear contamination from unearthing and spreading this monster. In response, the Navajo Nation banned uranium mining and processing within their borders in 2005, and the nation supports the restoration and expansion of Bears Ears National Monument, in part to keep the uranium found there buried. In Diné cosmology, monsters can be slayed with a plan and action. Doing so restores hózhó, or balance. The plan and action here should be to bury leetso again, forever, by restoring and expanding Bears Ears National Monument.
Earlier this year, the Biden administration committed to conserving 30 percent of our nation’s land and water by 2030. With the Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful report, the administration lays out a vision for the next four years of environmental justice, conservation, and climate policy.
But the one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.
— Greta Thunberg
In addition to putting forth the so-called 30x30 goal, the White House has prioritized tribal sovereignty, science-driven decision-making that includes traditional knowledge from Indigenous communities, place-based processes that include local communities, and expanded collaboration. The Trust shares a commitment to these principles, and it’s inspiring to see these ideas voiced from the Capitol, albeit long overdue.
We aim to help our nation reach the goal of 30 percent land protection, while holding the federal government to its promise to deliver environmental justice across land management and environmental agencies.
30x30 on the Colorado Plateau
So what does 30x30 mean for the Grand Canyon and surrounding public lands? The Grand Canyon Trust resolves to turn the 30x30 concept into on-the-ground action for the landscapes and communities of the Colorado Plateau. We’re devoted to conserving and restoring millions of acres on the plateau. Here are some of our current large-scale projects:
Grand Canyon region
Grand Canyon Protection Act — If passed, this would permanently protect one million acres of public lands around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. Ask your senators to support the bill ›
Closure and cleanup of Canyon Mine (recently renamed Pinyon Plain Mine) — We are pushing for closure and cleanup of an operating uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and before the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Help protect the Grand Canyon’s waters from uranium contamination ›
North Rim Ranches — The Trust is reducing livestock grazing impacts and advocating for forest restoration that protects ecological and cultural resources on 830,000 acres of public lands north of the Grand Canyon.
Little Colorado River — In partnership with tribal communities, we seek long-term legal and regulatory safeguards for several miles of the Little Colorado River near its confluence with the mainstem Colorado River.
We are supporting tribes as they push the Biden administration to restore and expand the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument to between 1.35 and 1.9 million acres. This cultural landscape will be collaboratively managed by tribes and the federal government for the benefit of plants, animals, and people. Ask President Biden to expand Bears Ears ›
Northern Arizona Forests
DEBORAH LEE SOLTESZ, U.S. FOREST SERVICE
We, alongside dozens of partners, are working with the Forest Service on the Four Forest Restoration Initiative. All said and done, this effort will restore 2.4 million acres of ponderosa forest in northern Arizona and protect communities from ever-increasing risk of severe wildfires in the face of ongoing drought and climate change.
The time to act is now
With severe drought across the Colorado Plateau, record temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, and rising seas in Miami, the urgency for implementing momentous change is here. The time to act in ways that will create hope is yesterday. And, so, while we’re encouraged by the words in Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful, we insist on more than words. We’re not waiting for science-based management to keep pinyon and juniper forests and soils intact, sitting back to see whether traditional knowledge drives collaborative management of national monuments, or wondering whether the federal government will protect precious groundwater at the Grand Canyon from uranium mining. We’re demanding action — in writing, in person, and in court — to protect our beloved landscapes on the Colorado Plateau. We hope you’ll join us. Action spawns hope, like Greta says.
Find opportunities to protect the places you love. Take action ›
Is good news coming for Utah’s embattled national monuments? According to the Washington Post, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has recommended that protections be restored for Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in a confidential report delivered to the White House on June 2, 2021.
Secretary Haaland’s recommendations follow a visit to Utah in April. The review of President Trump’s 2017 actions slashing protections for the monuments was required by an executive order on climate and the environment that President Biden signed on his first day in office.
During his campaign, then-candidate Biden promised to take action on the monuments, pledging to “take immediate steps to reverse the Trump administration’s assaults on America’s natural treasures, including by reversing Trump’s attacks on…Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante.”
The Inauguration Day order was an immediate step, and now that the report is finished and favorable recommendations have been made, we hope action to restore the boundaries of both monuments — and expand Bears Ears — will come soon.
Threats to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase are real, and they are growing. This spring, new uranium and vanadium mining claims were filed on lands unlawfully cut from Bears Ears, and a plan of operations for one of the claims has been filed as well.
Reflecting on this, Diné (Navajo) environmental scientist Dr. Tommy Rock connected uranium, Bears Ears, and environmental justice in a recent op-ed in the Arizona Republic. Dr. Rock’s words offer some much-needed perspective:
“When it comes to mineral extraction in Bears Ears, I think a lot of people do not realize how important it is to us as Indigenous people. As a uranium researcher, I know firsthand about the radioactive legacy of the Cold War that plagues my community.
My community is not just people. For us, everything is alive, even the dirt, the plants and the rocks. We recognize our relationship with our other than human relatives, and we are linked with them as one community.
We use the environment for food, for shelter and for ceremony. There is a mutual respect between people and this environment; we cannot separate ourselves from this community.
Uranium mining and oil and gas extraction interrupt that relationship within our community. And when it happens, there are consequences. The environment is not healthy, and in return, we are not healthy because it creates a gap in our being.”
Near the close of the piece, Dr. Rock connects the dots, saying, “President Joe Biden has committed to the cause of environmental justice. For me, success on environmental justice is restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, and it is cleaning up abandoned uranium mines.”
New oil and gas leases nominated in Bears Ears
The fossil fuel industry has been eyeing Bears Ears too. Industry submitted nominations for more than 40,000 acres of oil and gas leases on lands unlawfully cut from the monument in 2017. The Bureau of Land Management has the discretion not to auction off these leases, but the sheer volume of land proposed is a strong indication that promptly restoring protections is necessary. National monument designations prevent new mining claims and new oil and gas leasing.
Tourism on the rise
Visitation is growing too, but budgets to plan for and manage those visitors are not. There is hopeful news on that front, though. President Biden’s 2022 budget request includes a 47 percent boost in funding for the National Conservation Lands, a system of protected Bureau of Land Management lands that includes Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Now it’s up to Congress to pass this budget, and we’re hopeful that more resources will mean better planning for the future, along with better management.
Newspaper Rock, Bears Ears National Monument.TIM PETERSON
Vandalism highlights need for permanent protections
Finally, recent and shocking incidents of vandalism to cultural sites in southern Utah highlight the need for restored protections, better visitor management, and better education for the visiting public. One rock climber drilled bolts into a petroglyph panel, and another vandal scrawled racist language and an obscene drawing on a revered rock art panel near Moab, Utah.
One can’t help but connect President Trump’s proclamation calling cultural resources that he slashed from Bears Ears “not unique” and “not of significant scientific or historic interest” to actions like these. Disrespect begets disrespect, and it’s time to do better. Both incidents demonstrate that there is much work to be done in teaching people how to visit respectfully. Tribal leaders and elders recently shared some guidance on this subject.
Looking ahead, restoring the monuments’ boundaries is only the first step. There is much work to be done in ensuring that Bears Ears is managed collaboratively and with the benefit of the traditional knowledge of the five tribal nations of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, and that Grand Staircase-Escalante reclaims its science-driven focus. Both monuments deserve to be restored, and protections cannot return soon enough!
There’s an old joke in southern Utah: “How do you know when it’s finally spring? The license plates turn green.” But neighboring Coloradoans and their green plates weren’t the only ones headed to Utah this April. Deb Haaland visited Utah on her first official trip as interior secretary. She was the third secretary in five years to visit the state to mull the question of national monuments, their management, and their size.
“I'm here to listen.”
Secretary Haaland’s visit was different from those of former secretaries Jewell and Zinke in style and in substance, but also in terms of public engagement. COVID-19 protocols meant no public events, only one press conference, and strict size limits on meetings.
“My message is really very simple, I'm here to listen, I'm here to learn,” Secretary Haaland said in a press conference on April 8. “I know that decisions about public lands are incredibly impactful to the people who live nearby. But not just to us, not just to the folks who are here today, but [for] people for generations to come...So it's important that the president get this right,” she continued.
The visit was different from a personal perspective as well. As the first Indigenous interior secretary, Secretary Haaland understands the enduring cultural value of the monuments. Her ancestral connections to these places made her experience different.
The earth holds so much power. We must all work together to honor it.
On April 8, she attended a morning ceremony with local spiritual leaders and Indigenous elected officials near Muley Point, and toured Bears Ears with tribal leaders and Utah elected officials. That afternoon she held a press conference, then three stakeholder meetings in Blanding, one with local elected officials, one with ranching and mining interests, and one with conservationists.
On April 9, Secretary Haaland flew to Kanab and met with Reps. Stewart and Owens, Senator Mike Lee, and county commissioners, as well as a meeting with conservation and business interests.
The Trust was fortunate to attend the conservation stakeholder listening session in Blanding. Collectively, the group focused on support for expanding Bears Ears to the full 1.9 million acres originally proposed by tribes. Individually, I used my three minutes to urge restoration for Grand Staircase-Escalante and expansion of Bears Ears and restoration of our landmark deal limiting cattle grazing in the Escalante River canyons. I showed photos of areas that were proposed by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition but not included in the 2016 Bears Ears designation, and spoke to the importance of collaborative management. I also emphasized that everyone has a story to tell about Bears Ears, even those who may consider themselves opponents.
Opposition hardens
However, after the secretary’s visit, the Utah delegation seemed to harden its opposition to restoring the monuments using the Antiquities Act, renewing demands that Utah be exempted from further presidential national monument designations. According to a joint statement from the delegation: “without protections against the Antiquities Act, Utah is left vulnerable to the whim of future presidents.” Such an unpopular provision is unlikely to pass congressional muster.
National monuments are widely popular across the political spectrum, with 77 percent of Westerners and 74 percent of Utahns favoring restoration in a recent poll.
Digging in, Governor Cox said Utah will likely sue should President Biden act to restore the monuments, but legal scholar and Grand Canyon Trust Board Trustee John Leshy argues that the governor “is wrong to argue that the Supreme Court is likely to reverse any restoration of Utah’s national monuments.”
Mr. President, the time to act is now
It’s important that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are restored quickly. Especially considering four new mining claims were filed in March and April 2021 on lands unlawfully cut from Bears Ears in 2017. One claim is next to the Easy Peasy Mine, and the other three just north of Natural Bridges National Monument. All were filed by the same uranium miner that excavated the Easy Peasy Mine in 2018. If for some reason restoration doesn’t come soon, it’s important that the Department of the Interior institute a mineral withdrawal now to prevent more mining claims.
Thank you!
A hearty thanks to all who participated in the online day of action on April 9, 2021. Collectively, we reached over 5.5 million people on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtags #SaveGrandStaircase and #StandWithBearsEars.
After all the anticipation and excitement around the visit, we can take great hope and comfort in the fact that with new leadership in charge, the future looks bright for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
This has been a meaningful trip, and I deeply appreciate the many people who took the time to share their wisdom, perspectives, and prayers with me. It's a powerful reminder that how we manage public lands and national monuments will provide a path for future generations. pic.twitter.com/1FMbTmpS3S
— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) April 9, 2021
Faithful readers will no doubt recall that former President Trump gutted two Utah national monuments in 2017, slashing Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half. On his first day in office, President Biden signed an order to “take immediate steps to reverse the Trump administration’s assaults on America’s natural treasures, including by reversing Trump’s attacks on … Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.” The order called for a 60-day review “to determine whether restoration of the monument boundaries and conditions that existed as of January 20, 2017, would be appropriate.”
A new secretary of the interior to lead the charge
The 60-day review period has now passed, but the recent appointment of a new secretary of the interior seems to have extended the report’s timeline. In a historic first, Deb Haaland was confirmed as our newest interior secretary by the U.S. Senate on March 15, 2021. She is the first Native American to hold a cabinet-level position and to be interior secretary, and it’s long overdue. She said of her nomination: "If an Indigenous woman from humble beginnings can be confirmed as Secretary of the Interior, our country and its promise still holds true for everyone.”
Secretary Haaland knows Utah’s national monuments. She introduced the ANTIQUITIES ACT of 2019 in Congress, a bill which would have restored Grand Staircase-Escalante and expanded Bears Ears, and she sponsored the BEARS Act, a bill that would have expanded Bears Ears. As a member of Pueblo of Laguna and with Jemez Pueblo heritage, she knows these ancestral lands on a much deeper level. At a 2019 hearing examining the monument cuts, Haaland said: “It’s easy to get emotional about our natural resources and about traditional tribal land when you know that your ancestors have been there for generations, and that it’s only because of them that you sit here today.”
Secretary Haaland’s appointment means so much to so many, and representation matters. What does Indigenous leadership at the Department of the Interior mean for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase? In the Salt Lake Tribune, former Ute Mountain Ute councilwoman and past Bear Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition co-chair Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk pointed out the importance of shared cultural understanding, saying “we need not spend so much time re-educating her about who we are as Indigenous people, what our beliefs are, and why, for our survival as a people, we need sacred landscapes like Bears Ears protected.”
Secretary Haaland to visit Utah
TIM PETERSON
Based on a promise she made to Sen. Mike Lee during her confirmation hearing, Secretary Haaland plans to visit Utah to meet with all sides of the national monument debate in April. She’ll be the third interior secretary to visit Utah regarding monuments. In 2016, former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell met with tribal leaders, Utah elected officials, as well as monument advocates and opponents; all were heard. In 2017, former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s trip was tightly guided by monument opponents. He refused to meet with the Boulder-Escalante Chamber of Commerce, spent only about an hour with elected officials from Native nations, and testily shook his finger at an Indigenous advocate.
Haaland’s visit will be much different than Jewell’s or Zinke’s due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but her commitment to listen already sets her apart from her most recent predecessor. In 2017, more than 99 percent of people who commented opposed alterations to national monuments, but Zinke recommended and Trump acted unlawfully to hack away at them anyway. Making Utah’s national monuments whole again remains popular. The 2021 Conservation in the West poll found that 77 percent of Westerners and 74 percent of Utahns support restoring protections.
Utah politicians respond with same old tricks
Going against the wishes of the public and their constituents, Utah politicians who oppose the monuments have blown the dust off their old playbook, and though the cast of characters has changed, the script remains largely the same. In 2016, former Rep. Rob Bishop attempted to block the designation of Bears Ears with promises of passing legislation, but his bill was so full of poison pills that it could not pass.
Now, and again, Utah’s new governor and congressional delegation are urging President Biden not to restore the monuments so they can craft legislation. This time though, the poison pill is in their press release, in which they demand “statutory protections to prevent abuses under the Antiquities Act for the State of Utah,” i.e. barring Biden and future presidents from designating new national monuments. Such a wildly unpopular provision simply could not pass this Congress. Governor Spencer Cox went a step further, calling the law that allows presidents to create national monuments “un-American” and “unconstitutional” in a recent press conference.
These are strong signals that anti-monument Utah politicians aren’t serious about finding solutions and that legislation shouldn’t forestall reinstatement of protections. We hope that President Biden will act swiftly to restore protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante, and to restore and expand Bears Ears. As each day gets a little bit longer, we have a spring in our step for Utah’s national monuments!
In a hopeful move for the future of efforts to close and clean up the White Mesa uranium mill, President Biden’s first full week on the job included two key actions that can help address radioactive and toxic pollution in southeast Utah on the doorstep of Bears Ears National Monument and next to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s White Mesa community. Taken together, these orders are a marked departure from the last four years, and they demonstrate a real commitment to prioritizing tribal nations, confronting the climate change, and advancing environmental justice.
1. Respecting tribes as sovereign nations
The first action was a presidential memorandum on reaffirming tribal sovereignty through strengthened tribal consultation. Reversing years of neglect and damage done to government-to-government relationships by the previous administration, President Biden said of the memorandum: “I'm directing the federal agencies to reinvigorate the consultation process with Indian tribes. ...respect for tribal sovereignty will be a cornerstone of our engaging with Native American communities.
2. Prioritizing environmental justice
The second action was an executive order on tackling the climate crisis. Provisions pausing oil and gas leasing on public lands and committing to protect 30 percent of public lands and waters by 2030 got a lot of attention, but big steps taken to address environmental injustice are significant too.
What is environmental justice?
Environmental justice means all people, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, have the same protections from health hazards and are meaningfully involved in decision-making around a healthy environment. For environmental justice to happen, frontline communities need to be at the table when it comes to making decisions about environmental policies, regulations, and how we enforce environmental laws.
Environmental justice strategist Mustafa Santiago Ali said of the president’s actions: “You cannot win on climate change if you don’t win on environmental justice. ...that’s why this historic set of executive orders that are being rolled out today are so transformational.”
This means recognizing that people and their environment are intertwined, and that the high costs of pollution have been disproportionately paid by communities of color, including Indigenous communities like White Mesa.
President Biden’s climate order adopts a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice by creating one advisory council and strengthening another to deal with environmental justice across many government agencies, including the departments of interior, energy, and agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
With an eye toward easing ongoing health impacts wrought by the uranium industry across the Colorado Plateau, particularly on the Navajo Nation, the climate order also commits to create jobs by remediating “environmental harms from tens of thousands of former mining … sites.”
The White Mesa uranium mill sits near former uranium mines. And, as a recipient of mined uranium as well as a processor of uranium-laden waste and a de facto low-cost radioactive waste dump that stores the toxic leftovers from that processing and mining on-site, the mill must be viewed through the lens of environmental justice as well.
Environmental justice at White Mesa
Fair treatment means that no population bears a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial … operations or from the execution of … laws; regulations; and policies.
— U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Legacy Management
When an Indigenous community like the Ute community at White Mesa bears the brunt of pollution, it is not fair treatment — it is environmental racism. Community members are concerned about the uranium mill just over three miles from their community that belches acrid smoke from its stacks and dumps toxic and radioactive waste in ponds built atop ancient burial grounds. The mill pollutes the air, the water, and the land. Community members worry about the health of their kids and their elders. They worry about radioactive spills along the highway that runs through their community, past the mill, and toward the nearest grocery store. They worry about pollution of the water table beneath the mill — water that flows toward their community underground, and that feeds springs important for spiritual purposes.
White Mesa community members lead their annual spiritual walk to the mill in protest. CORTEZ JOURNAL
This is a story that’s too familiar — the toxic legacy of uranium and the nuclear fuel cycle have disproportionately harmed Indigenous communities across the nation, from the Midnite Mine on the Spokane Indian Reservation to the contaminated piles of radioactive tailings left over from the Cold War uranium boom on the Navajo Nation.
The concepts made law in President Biden’s order represent more than half a century of labor by environmental justice advocates, but this is just a step forward, not the finish line. Robert Bullard, a Texas professor widely recognized as the father of the environmental justice movement, underscored the challenge at hand, saying: "The job ahead is to make sure we follow through. It won't be easy. There is always resistance to change. We just have to keep working."
Change at White Mesa means better consultation between government agencies and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe on issues related to the White Mesa uranium mill, including plans to import radioactive waste to the mill from Estonia and Japan, and elevating the mill as a national environmental justice priority. We’ll keep working to support the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the concerned citizens of the White Mesa community in their tireless effort to close and clean up the White Mesa Mill. Environmental justice means that the White Mesa Ute community has a fundamental right to live free from radioactive pollution, and it is time that their voices are taken seriously.
Today, October 8, 2021, President Biden signed proclamations renewing and restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to their original glory! The proclamations restore the boundaries of both monuments and include protections for an additional 11,200 acres around Indian Creek in Bears Ears. See a map of the restored monuments ›
With these landmark proclamations, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are made whole and complete again — returned to their rightful place as venerated national monuments, fully protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
It’s a truly momentous day for both monuments, for the countless people who love them, and for the lands themselves — so rich in culture, fossils, plants and animals, and stunning scenery that make them so deserving of the elevated protections that national monument status affords.
I am proud to stand with President Biden in restoring these monuments and fulfilling his commitment to the American people...The historical connection between Indigenous peoples and Bears Ears is undeniable; our Native American ancestors sustained themselves on the landscape since time immemorial and evidence of their rich lives is everywhere one looks. This living landscape must be protected so that all Americans have the profound opportunity to learn and cherish our history.”
–Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland
Native nations to help guide management at Bears Ears
President Biden’s proclamation for Bears Ears also reinstates the strongest model of federal-intertribal collaborative land management to date in American law, a model that was weakened in President Trump’s 2017 attempt to shrink the monument.
At Bears Ears, Native nations can now celebrate their history in these cultural landscapes by actively collaborating government-to-government with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service on land management for places their ancestors have stewarded for hundreds of generations. At Grand Staircase-Escalante, you can almost hear ancient pinyon and juniper forests heave a sigh of relief as the threat of clear-cutting abates.
Rebuilding and healing begin
These curative actions by President Biden are the first step in undoing President Trump’s unlawful December 2017 proclamations that slashed Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half. Those actions represented the single largest removal of protections for national public lands in American history, stripping more than 2 million acres of their preservation status. The restoration of these monuments is a powerful metaphor for what America needs most now: to rebuild and to heal.
President Biden’s proclamations mean we can begin rebuilding what so many have spent so long working to protect. We look forward to new management plans for both monuments, and we’ll share details about what’s next in the coming months. Now, there is much work to be done activating Bears Ears as the nation’s first national monument to honor Indigenous cultures and traditional knowledge and restoring the primacy of science and discovery at Grand Staircase-Escalante.
What restoring national monuments means on the ground
TIM PETERSON
Bears Ears is a place of history, a place of wonder, a place of great beauty, and a place where everyone has a story to tell. The story written here during President Trump’s term was one of industry access and influence — for the uranium-mining company that lobbied the administration to reduce the boundaries, and for the politicians who disrespected the Native nations that sought to see the area set aside for preservation. Bears Ears holds a future of healing, and we all have a part in that work.
Grand Staircase-Escalante is a place where science is honored and where discovery is paramount. That discovery can be personal for the family that takes in its stunning vistas for the first time, or scientific, from jaw-dropping native bee diversity to the discovery of more than two dozen species of dinosaurs previously unknown to science.
National support for national monuments
Making these monuments whole again is a key step toward finally fulfilling their original promise, and one that the American public supports broadly. Year after year, polling has revealed that a supermajority of Western voters opposed the downsizing of national monuments. Now, conservation, recreation, scientific, and grassroots groups and associations all across the nation meet the monument restorations with joy and celebration. Millions of citizens do too — President Trump’s downsizing of national monuments drew rebuke from more than 2.8 million public commenters in 2017.
Some Utah politicians at the local and state level and within the congressional delegation will likely oppose the restoration of the monuments, but politicians and extractive interests objected to the preservation of public lands from Arches and Capitol Reef to Canyonlands when they were protected in the 20th century. Today, few would argue that protections should be removed from these crown jewels of our national park system.
By restoring these national monuments, President Biden has also reinvigorated the opportunities they offer: to respect and elevate the Indigenous histories that have conserved these places for hundreds of generations, and to honor the past and its unbreakable bond to the present and the future. After years of struggle, it’s time to set about rebuilding that legacy.