Trump agrees to shrink Grand Staircase and Bears Ears
- Thread starter Oneye
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Southern Elk
Well-known member
A blind man could see this coming.
I see what you did there.
JWP58
Banned
Just to be clear, no public land will be lost or transferred to the state, correct?
It is highly unlikely. The full specifics are not out until Trump visits Utah and announces them in December. This will be met in court undoubtably. Many reports specifically do say coal mining is the main reason for opening up Grand Staircase, and I’m sorry, but I go there every year and hunt and shed hunt and the thought of it just disgusts me a little. It’s one of the most unique and great mule deer herds and habitat in the country, the thought of oil and gas pads dotting the landscape and coal trucks and roads cutting through the area just kind of hurts to think about.
OriginalOscar
Active member
What reports mention coal mining as the main reason?
News reports, I believe I read it in the Washington Post and one other article saying simply that Grand Staircase would be specifically opened for coal mining. Zinkes own leaked report focuses heavily on coal and oil reserves within GS.Sorry dukes but if you don’t think that’s the main agenda behind shrinking GS there’s another thing coming. Bring on the semis and 2 lane roads dammit that lands just sittin ther.
Also from the Tribune:
“Approached by reporters at an event in Salt Lake City on Friday, Hatch said Trump “told me Bears Ears would be the way I said it should be,” though he offered no specifics on how the size would change. Hatch also said Trump would modify the Grand Staircase to allow coal mining in the Kaiparowits Plateau.”
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Zach
Well-known member
The Wild Earth Guardians are all over this...
Some long time locals/visitors to the GSENM area I know in Utah experienced a similar "hurt" by the monument designation, which brought a lot more people and a change in roads to the area...
While this is true, adding roads for semis to coal mines and oil pads isn’t going to make things better. You will simply have the tourists and pressure of mineral development. Also, I’ve lived here all my life as well and live about an hour away from GS and go there very often.
I agree it has negatively impacted some local people, but there is also a negative public sentiment and unwillingness to embrace and adapt to make things better. Those upset with it are the ones sitting in the corner pouting and still complaining. It has also had beneficial affects for many people and businesses in those areas as well. I also agree it didn’t save everything, but it saved it from being torn apart by mineral development and the long term benefits outweigh the cost by far IMO. I don’t mean to sound harsh or uncaring for those it may have negatively affected, but the unending bitterness has not helped them the last 20 years.
OriginalOscar
Active member
I find it amusing the disrespectful discounting of people who've been tied to public lands in rural Utah for generations. People want opportunity for their kids and monument designations change and limit those opportunities.
Oh you mean like myself? I want opportunity as well, the opportunity for future generations to have a landscape in tact in some places and reserves of minerals that are left alone because the damage extracting them in some areas for short term gain are outweighed by the long term consequences that has. I understand the initial shock and frustration, I don’t understand the unwillingness to embrace something that can actually help the area. When you full out resist and are bitter for 2 decades and sitting in the corner pouting it does you no good. There are great people in these areas that would rather be bitter than better their future and situation, including the county commissioners. What’s best for the greatest amount of people over the greatest amount of time is what I support, and leaving it be is just that. Drilling and mining it is the short term, short sighted, get rich quick scheme that has irreversible consequences. I’m not discounting the people who disagree with the monument, I just don’t think they’ve done enough to move on from the bitterness.
Too bad there’s not some compromise where like Montanans could keep there 100k/yr mining jobs for certain, keep mining in Roundup
http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=LEEDCC+
and we leave National Monuments alone.
Of course both sides are extremists and neither would ‘win’ under those circumstances.
We should mine coal NOWHERE or we stripmine Old Faithful. There’s no in between.
http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=LEEDCC+
and we leave National Monuments alone.
Of course both sides are extremists and neither would ‘win’ under those circumstances.
We should mine coal NOWHERE or we stripmine Old Faithful. There’s no in between.
This is spot on.
While I know this to be true for some folks in that part of UT, that is not an apt description of the folks I know. The accomplishments of their careers state otherwise...
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