Although Utah’s politicians often complain about “federal overreach,” stating that local citizens were excluded when the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) was established, these same legislators are now totally ignoring the will of the townsfolk living adjacent to their own recently proposed national park. Not a single public meeting nor inquiry preceded Rep. Chris Stewart’s HR4558 bill (and Utah Legislature’s pending Concurrent Resolution SCR8) to create the Escalante Canyons National Park in our backyard.
HR4558 is an obvious attempt to fast-track congressional approval for Trump’s unconstitutional revision of the GSENM boundaries before it has its day in court. Even worse, the bill requires that the disintegrated GSENM and sham national park would be administered by a management council primarily made up of antagonistic local politicians who are not qualified land managers.
Stewart’s proposal would turn our towns into gateway communities. Nobody I know in Boulder or Escalante, neither conservationists nor ranchers, wants this to happen. Being designated as a national park would open the floodgates of industrial tourism on our little towns. This is a political agenda and not the will of the people!
Keith Watts, Boulder
