https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.507d33667b13
98% of respondents to the public comment period on monuments were opposed to this tract.
We now have an administration that has advocated eliminating protections on wildlife refuges & monuments, recommended cutting budgets by over 30%, taken money from management and put it towards permit processing and removed significant protections for wildlife and wildlife habitat on multiple use public lands, and they're not done. The Sage Grouse Plans are up for cutting as well. Those plans, opposed by industry, Utah and a couple of state electeds, represent a change in how we manage our public lands in that it places wildlife and the outdoor economy on the same level playing field as oil, gas & mining. In fact, the DOI just auctioned off leases in core sage-grouse habitat for $15K. Rock-bottom prices.
The move to amend or change those plans is opposed by Western Game & Fish agencies, the Governors of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado, and a vast coalition of organizations who worked for over 10 years to develop these plans.
Sad state of affairs for public lands & public wildlife.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.
The memorandum, which the White House has refused to release since Zinke submitted it late last month, does not specify exact reductions for the four protected areas Zinke would have Trump narrow — Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Nevada’s Gold Butte, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou — or the two marine national monuments — the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll — for which he raised the same prospect. The two Utah sites encompass a total of more than 3.2 million acres, part of the reason they have aroused such intense emotions since their designation.
98% of respondents to the public comment period on monuments were opposed to this tract.
We now have an administration that has advocated eliminating protections on wildlife refuges & monuments, recommended cutting budgets by over 30%, taken money from management and put it towards permit processing and removed significant protections for wildlife and wildlife habitat on multiple use public lands, and they're not done. The Sage Grouse Plans are up for cutting as well. Those plans, opposed by industry, Utah and a couple of state electeds, represent a change in how we manage our public lands in that it places wildlife and the outdoor economy on the same level playing field as oil, gas & mining. In fact, the DOI just auctioned off leases in core sage-grouse habitat for $15K. Rock-bottom prices.
The move to amend or change those plans is opposed by Western Game & Fish agencies, the Governors of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado, and a vast coalition of organizations who worked for over 10 years to develop these plans.
Sad state of affairs for public lands & public wildlife.
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