I am writing to express my opinions regarding the mailer “Restoring Our Land Rights” that U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart just sent out supporting the president’s recent reductions of the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments. My perspective is that of a retired Bureau of Land Management district manager who oversaw two national monuments on the Arizona Strip.
Stewart’s characterization that “ranchers have been kicked off the range” and “local economies have been negatively impacted” is not accurate and only serves to further distort/inflame the issue. Certainly, national monument designations do affect the management of traditional uses, but they are not nearly as exclusionary as designated wilderness and, in most cases, traditional uses such as grazing, hunting and other forms of recreational uses can be accommodated while protecting monument objects (and most monument proclamations recognize and provide for traditional uses).