Fourteen Westminster College students, two faculty members and a program assistant just returned from a semester-long road trip around the American West. Over 10,000 miles, we traced some of the meanings, conflicts and cooperation embedded in landscapes. The Bears Ears National Monument represents a crucial chapter in that story and involves a movement towards including more voices in that conversation.
For the 82 days of our “Expedition,” our public lands served as classroom, textbook and, when we got sick of one another, escape. We listened to people who use those lands for other purposes: ranching, water for agriculture and energy production.