Kane County Commissioner Lamont Smith misunderstands the nature of Grand Staircase-Escalante when he thinks “people can’t get to or see” (The Tribune, March 31) the 1.9 million acres of the original national monument. Nearly a million annual visitors, of course, prove him wrong.
Grand Staircase is a BLM-managed national monument, not a unit of the National Park Service. In both its original extent and in President Trump’s misguided downsized versions, the monument remains within the BLM’s National Conservation Lands. Recreation is dispersed, with little infrastructure. Conservation and science flourish alongside hunting and livestock grazing.
The BLM requests comments on plans for the Trump versions of Grand Staircase and Bears Ears. We fear it will ignore these comments, just as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ignored the 2.8 million citizens who pleaded last summer to leave our monuments intact.
But our job as citizens is to continue to make the case for conservation and stewardship. When they go low, we go high, and that means speaking up for these irreplaceable public lands. The outrageously short comment periods end on April 11 for Bears Ears, April 13 for Grand Staircase. Speak up. Speak truth to power. Create a public record for the future.
Stephen Trimble, Salt Lake City