Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 4 deceMber 2017
Utah’s tenacious efforts to take back federal land stand out

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI are more sensitive to com-
Associated Press plaints from people like
DENVER (AP) — In an Rep. Noel.
American West that has a “Every single one of the
love-hate relationship with people in that Legislature,
the federal government’s they have a connection
ownership of a check- to rural Utah,” said Noel,
erboard of parks, monu- an avid birder and former
ments, forest and desert in employee of the Bureau
states from Washington to of Land Management, the
New Mexico, Utah stands Interior Department agen-
out. cy that oversees some
The state has gone well 386,000 square miles (1
beyond any other in the million square kilometers)
region in trying to pry the across the West.
federal government’s Also, until the Legislature
hands off land it sees as changed the law in 2014,
belonging to its residents. Utah’s political parties
In 2012, its Legislature mostly chose their candi-
passed a law demand- dates at party gatherings.
ing the federal govern- Since Republicans are vir-
ment give 30 million acres tually guaranteed to win
(121,000 square kilometers) In this undated file photo, the Upper Gulch section of the Escalante Canyons within Utah’s Grand elections in most of the
of the land it owns in Utah Staircase-Escalante National Monument features sheer sandstone walls, broken occasionally by state, that system allowed
to the state government tributary canyons. a tiny handful of dedicat-
— a measure other West- Associated Press ed activists to gain outsize
ern states have balked at the Utah State Capitol. Utah voters back them by meter) Grand Staircase weight in selecting elected
replicating, even deeply The president is considering a 2-1 margin. and the 2,000-square-mile officials.
conservative ones like Ida- changes to other Western “I can’t say why Utah (5,180-square-kilome- Finally, there is The Church
ho. monuments as well, as rec- elected officials have ter) Bears Ears National of Jesus Christ of Latter-
Earlier this year, a Utah ommended by his interior taken this on more than in Monument that President day Saints, the religion that
congressman introduced secretary, Ryan Zinke. But other states,” she said. “But Obama created last year makes Utah unlike any
a bill to sell more than no state has been agitat- we see widespread recog- in the southeast part of the other state. It was founded
4,600 square miles (11,900 ing for reductions like Utah. nition that designation of state are simply too intru- in the 19th century by Mor-
square kilometers) of West- In a telling move, at the protected land is valued.” sive on local communities mons who fled massacres in
ern federal land to private same time Zinke recom- The reasons range from and ranchers, they argue, the Midwest and were des-
entities but pulled it after mended the Utah shrink- geography to politics to and too much of the state perate to have a land they
a backlash. And on Mon- is locked up by the federal could call their own — and
day, President Donald government and barred to control their economic
Trump is expected to an- from energy development. destiny, said Mathew Bow-
nounce he’s significantly Washington, D.C., owns man, author of a history of
reducing the size of two two-thirds of Utah’s land, a the faith called “The Mor-
national monuments in greater percentage than mon People.”
southern Utah, the first in any other state in the Sometimes extremists seize
such act by a president in lower 48 other than Ne- on the LDS connection. The
half a century. vada. Bundy family of Nevada
“Utah’s certainly on the tip “If you live in Colorado, ranchers, who brandished
of the spear,” said state you live in Arizona, you are guns during a standoff with
Rep. Mike Noel, who rep- not dealing with the feder- BLM agents in rural Ne-
resents south-central Utah, al lands that we are,” state vada in 2014 and last year
where some residents Senate President Wayne helped seize an Oregon
have fought to shrink or Supporters of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Niederhauser said. wildlife refuge, identify as
eliminate Grand Staircase- National Monuments hold signs during a rally Saturday, Dec. 2, Like much of the West, Mormon and have some-
Escalante National Monu- 2017, in Salt Lake City. Utah is actually a very ur- times pointed to scripture
ment since President Bill Associated Press ban state. All that pro- to justify their actions. But
Clinton created it in 1996. age, he urged the creation Utah’s unique Mormon his- tected — and arid — land the Mormon church con-
Polls have repeatedly of a new national monu- tory and culture. means most residents pack demned their takeover
shown Westerners cherish ment in his conservative Even Utah’s sharpest crit- into the fast-growing cor- of the refuge, and even
national monuments and home state of Montana, ics of federal land bristle ridor between the Great some LDS members frus-
other protected federal where he’s believed to at the notion that they Salt Lake and the Wasatch trated with federal con-
land — even in Utah — but harbor political ambitions. are against conservation. mountains, in the northern trol of Western lands have
the state’s political leaders “There’s nothing in our They say they treasure the part of the state near Salt expressed revulsion at the
have been united in cele- data that’d say, politically, state’s five national parks, Lake City. family’s actions.
brating Trump’s expected that this is popular,” said many national forests and But unlike other heavily ur- Ken Ivory, a state lawmak-
move. Lori Weigel, a Republican even some of its monu- ban Western states such as er from suburban Salt Lake
The president’s decision pollster in Denver, said of ments. Nevada that are destina- City who has led the cam-
has already sparked pro- efforts to trim monuments. The state itself conserves tions for transplants from paign to get other states
tests. On Saturday, thou- Weigel has done surveys lands in expansive state across the country, many to try to take over fed-
sands of demonstrators on Western land conserva- parks, they add, and would of Utah’s urbanites — es- eral land, acknowledges
holding signs with messag- tion for years, including re- protect its scenic treasures. pecially the politically ac- Utah’s religious tradition is
es like “Protect Wild Utah” cent ones for supporters of But the nearly 3,000-square- tive ones — are descen- a factor in its desire to take
converged on the steps of the monuments that found mile (7,770-square-kilo- dants of its rural areas who care of its terrain.q