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Gov. Gary Herbert is open to the creation of a new national monument in Utah, if it is part of a comprehensive 18-million-acre public-lands deal being hammered out by Rep. Rob Bishop and various stakeholders.

"I'm not too happy about national monuments, but if that's what it takes to get the compromise done … that's part of compromise," Herbert said Thursday during his monthly KUED news conference.

A coalition of American Indians from five tribes asked Congress and President Barack Obama in October to designate the Bears Ears National Monument on 1.9 million acres in southern Utah. The group said the area contains 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites that are sacred to dozens of tribes.

Herbert would not commit to supporting the proposal put forward by the Bears Ears Inter-tribal Coalition. But he said he would consider a slightly smaller, 1.6-million-acre proposal.

"It is a little bit smaller, but it's where they've got some consensus," Herbert said. "I guess it depends on where you draw the circle, but if that's what it takes to put together a compromise and bring us all together, that ought to be considered."

Herbert's spokesman, Jon Cox, said the governor would oppose a monument designation that was not part of the larger Public Lands Initiative.

Herbert acknowledged that the Public Lands Initiative, which has been spearheaded by Bishop and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, both Utah Republicans, has critics among county commissioners, advocates for environmental sustainability and others in rural Utah. But that is to be expected, the governor said.

"Compromise usually means that not everyone gets what they want on all sides of the issue," the governor said. "To be able to bring us together on 18 million acres of Utah, where we've been fighting since before [Gov.] Mike Leavitt, it would be nice to reconcile part of it."

Bishop's blueprint would expand Arches National Park, designate the Jurassic National Monument for dinosaur remains in Emery County and designate new wilderness acreage. There have been meetings with the Bears Ears coalition and, before that, members of the Navajo Nation and San Juan County Commission about the proposal.

Chaffetz's chief of staff, Fred Ferguson, said congressional staffers are in the process of putting the language of the Public Lands bill together.

"It will be a large bill that is game-changing, bigger than the county-by-county bills we've seen in the past, and I think we're right on the cusp of that package," he said. "I think it's going to be out very, very soon. I don't know if it's days or weeks, but we also want to get it right."

Ferguson wouldn't say exactly what conservation designations would be used for the Bears Ears area, but the goal of the process has been to use whatever tools make the most sense — whether it's a monument, wilderness or national conservation areas.

A spokeswoman for the tribal coalition did not return a phone call Thursday afternoon.