Paper Trail Shows Lots Of Communications Over Bears Ears National Monument

Down through the past four years there have been multiple communications, and meetings, between the Obama administration and Utah politicians and communities over the possibility of national monument status for the Bears Ears landscape in southeastern Utah, according to documents obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

While Gov. Gary Herbert, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, and U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz at various times complained that the Obama administration wasn't taking local concerns into consideration or communicating with stakeholders, the Oversight Committee received more than 11,000 pages of documents relating to the designation debate from the Interior Department. 

From those pages, the committee's Democratic staff selected 22 entries to illustrate the communications and meetings that occurred between 2013 and November 3, 2016.

“If anyone wants to paint Bears Ears National Monument as a surprise or the product of rushed or incomplete planning, they’ll have to explain hundreds of emails and dozens of pages of shared work product,” U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, said Thursday. “These documents are an exemplary record of public servants going above and beyond to find a workable solution to a complicated issue, and they show Democrats and Republicans working together more often than not.

"If a governor said half the nice things about me that Governor Herbert’s office said about the Interior Department during this process, I could retire a happy man. The future of Bears Ears should be based on this record of collaboration, not on some after-the-fact political narrative that serves a few narrow interests at everyone else’s expense.”

The documents touch on coordination between former Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Gov. Herbert's staff in advance of the secretary's visit to the Bears Ears region in July 2016; correspondence between the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Reps. Chaffetz and Rob Bishop in connection with the congressmen's efforts to secure support and passage of their Public Lands Initiative that was designed to apply to much the same landscape eventually encompassed by the national monument President Obama designated on December 28, 2016, and; correspondence from current and former members of the Utah Legislature and communities near the national monument to President Obama expressing support for the designation.

At the same time, the committee staff cited complaints from Utah politicians that the Obama administration was ignoring local stakeholders and presented evidence to the contary.

On July 18, the governor's staff wrote a letter to Secretary Jewell after her visit to the Bears Ears region to say, "your team orchestrated a comprehensive, balanced, well-run, and effective trip of southeast Utah. I also have to compliment you on the listening session on Saturday.  We were worried it might get out of hand but it went off brilliantly.  Kudos to you and your team!”

On July 31, Secretary Jewell wrote a note to Gov. Herbert, telling him that, "(A)s you have read and heard from [the Governor’s staff], the meetings were respectful and covered many different points of view. Spending time with [employees] of SITLA [School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration] was very helpful in understanding the state’s interest in land swaps and consolidation—we will continue to work with them.

"Please keep me informed if you still wish to have me visit the state with you in the fall. We are glad the PLI was finally released during my visit.  My team is reviewing it carefully and will continue to work with the delegation. … The different points of view weren’t as far apart as people anticipated.  These lands deserve further protection and resources—that was fairly universal.”

Five months later, Gov. Herbert was quoted as saying, "The president has misused his authority under the Antiquities Act and violated assurances made by his Interior Secretary to take into account local concerns before making a monument designation."

While Sen. Lee this past January stated that the Obama administration failed to listen to tribal officials on the question of national monument designation, a month earlier the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition had issued a press release stating that, "Utah's elected officials had years to act to protect Bears Ears. Instead of attempting serious legislation, they stalled and blocked any real attempts at legislative process. ... Utah's Governor and congressional delegation have stated they believe it is important to protect areas within the Bears Ears region, yet the failure of a good faith effort to pass sound legislation to provide the protections needed to safeguard the homelands of our ancestors belies those claims."

“Contrary to some claims, these documents indicate that the Department of the Interior consulted closely with the Utah delegation, its residents, tribes, and local stakeholders about the Bears Ears Monument,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Taken together, these documents demonstrate a lengthy and productive working relationship between the Department and multiple stakeholders, they include frequent acknowledgment of the Department’s eagerness to accommodate third party needs, and they show that many local officials strongly supported a monument designation.”

Utah's congressional delegation has been lobbying President Trump to abolish the national monument. While Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has expressed a desire to visit the region, he has not announced any plans to visit it.