In the past two weeks I’ve gone into the Bureau of Land Management offices at Salt Lake City and at Kane Gulch in the location previously known as the Bears Ears National Monument for maps and information. I was immediately struck by the absence of the official and legal maps for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears.
Apparently, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke and the Trump administration think the illegal downsizing of our national monuments is a done deal.
However, until this illegal administrative land grab is sorted out in the federal courts or through congressional action, I would expect to see the proper maps from the BLM offices. Not some fake maps drawn by petroleum, coal and extraction industry lobbyists.
The usurping of our public lands by Trump and Zinke is offensive as evidenced by the 2.7 million comments supporting America’s best idea, of which 1.2 million public comments alone were directly supporting the legal presidential designations for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase original land areas.
I cannot wait until the November elections, when we can finally begin the process to throw these bums out of office and elect those who will represent us with justice and truth.
Lance Holter, Salt Lake City