Thousands rally in support of national monuments ahead of Interior Secretary’s visit

Screen capture courtesy of Fox13Now.com, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY More than 2,000 people rallied at the Utah State Capitol Saturday in support of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.

Last month President Donald Trump issued an executive order to review all large national monument designations dating back to 1996. On Sunday, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke comes to Utah to conduct a review and subsequent recommendation.

Never in the history of the United States has a president taken a national monument away. So the number one goal of Saturday’s rally was to get the attention of Zinke.

“That he’ll listen, that he’ll understand that we are all here trying, and that we care this much,” said Brooke Newbold of Salt Lake City.

However, all of Utah’s Federal Delegation has said there is a way to protect these sites without declaring them a national monument. And state lawmakers like Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, are also weighing in.

“Focus on the resources that are there, focus on the archaeology, and not just take a big wide swath of 2,000 square miles and call it a national monument; that’s crazy,” Noel said.

Both Bears Ears and Grande Staircase-Escalante are in Noel’s district, District 73. He said making them national monuments has done more harm than good.

“It’s like being in a city and you can’t get any kind of zoning waver, you can’t get a pipeline in, you can’t get a power line in,” Noel said.

Read the full story here:  Fox13Now.com.

Written by ROBERT BOYD, Fox13Now.com

Copyright © 2017, KSTU. A Tribune broadcasting station

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

16 Comments

  • DRT May 7, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    Another “spontaneous” demonstration? Right, another very well prepared”spontaneous” demonstration. Interesting how so many of the people who are pro government land grabs live hundreds of miles away from these places. They could not care less about the people who do live near them, families that have been there for generations, that have their way of life, and often lively hood ruined. Just so these folks can have “a park experience” once every ten years or so.

    • Willie May 7, 2017 at 6:12 pm

      I’m with you, I live next to two parks myself. They have never done a single thing for me, sure they look pretty, but what is the point. I say turn them all over to the state to sell off for whatever they want. If there is an ounce of coal in The Grand Staircase, bulldoze it all, and let our kids and grandkids figure it out. Am I right or what?? This is the ONLY way we can make America great. King Trump demands it!!!

      • comments May 8, 2017 at 12:16 pm

        Willie’s post was sarcastic is my guess. Drt, on the other hand, is a genuine right-wing loon–likely a born and bred So. utard native.

        • Willie May 8, 2017 at 5:36 pm

          I love how you liberals always assume you know everything. There wasn’t a single ounce of sarcasm in my last post. Trump is the best, most popular, and accomplished out of any president we have ever have. Anything to the contrary is FAKE NEWS. Lest we all forget, he is a Republican. That means he has been ordained by God himself to lead this nation, and he is above any criticism or scrutiny. Good day Sir! 😉

    • Real Life May 7, 2017 at 10:33 pm

      I am having trouble figuring out which one of you is a bigger idiot. DRT is obviously stupid. Willie is border line mental retardation. You both have some inbreeding issues. There is a lot of that going on around here.

      • Conserve May 8, 2017 at 8:22 am

        You obviously are part of the picture crowd. Big mouth, demeaning words, ignorant mind. I would bet you’re under 30 years old or from out of state, at the most 1st gen. Utah doesn’t need your money, true Utahn’s don’t want it. We liked things the way they were before the likes of you arrived Enough said. (for now).

        • Real Life May 8, 2017 at 10:42 am

          “We liked things before the likes of you arrived”? Typical. I suppose you done did steal this here land fair and square from the injuns, now didn’t ya.

        • comments May 8, 2017 at 12:19 pm

          And yet it’s born and bred, “native”, S Utah-born local yocals selling all these big land tracts to developers. figure it out..

  • Thecadean May 7, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    Do you have any idea of how many jobs have been created by the parks in Utah?? Are we so clueless as to believe 7 billion people came to Utah to see coal mining?? Tourism is now Utah’s largest industry and top employer, oh and fastest growing industry in the state. Yep, let’s go back to coal mining, heck all the mines are being automated anyways so now we can kill jobs in Utah across the board. The job market has never been better, let’s progress not regress! Who knows maybe your children will even chose to stay where the job market is strong and the air is clean.

    “In 2014, travelers spent a record $7.98 billion in Utah, generating
    an estimated $1.09 billion in total state and local tax
    revenue. In fact, domestic and international visitor spending
    ($6.8 billion) exceeded Utah’s largest exports of primary metals
    ($4.2 billion) and computers and electronics ($2.4 billion), making
    travel and tourism the largest “export” industry in the state.
    Travel and tourism generated an estimated 137,200 direct, indirect
    and induced jobs in 2014 with an estimated $3.9 billion
    in wages.” University of Utah report on tourism, 2014.

  • commonsense May 8, 2017 at 6:29 am

    Have you ever seen a rally sponsored by Republicans? Me either.

    • Conserve May 8, 2017 at 8:44 am

      Maybe it’s time to start.

    • comments May 8, 2017 at 12:29 pm

      I remember images on the news a few years back of the fat, old, overly religious, retirement age coots that are living off social security, medicare and other socialist-based retired programs coming out to protest obamacare, Waving signs about the evils of the coming socialist apocalypse, and failing to see the irony, because they live off socialist benefits themselves. I believe they were called the ‘tea party’, and they were all republicans 😉

      • ladybugavenger May 13, 2017 at 5:59 am

        You need to get off the socialism kick your on. A democratic country has 3 elements: socialism, capitalism, and dictatorship.

        You’re going to see all three elements in America as opposed to just one.

  • The Dude May 8, 2017 at 7:33 am

    The environmental​ activist say we need to protect this land from miners and development. But how much damage is done by the traffic of visitors to the monuments? Let’s make it all wilderness area. That’s protection. But then you have a smaller management force. This fight is not about protecting land. It’s about expanding government.

    • comments May 8, 2017 at 12:21 pm

      maybe the ghost of Obama will come back to haunt all the miners and gas drillers! ooooooooooooh!

  • comments May 8, 2017 at 8:59 am

    Any time conservation is mentioned the wingnuts and right-wing loons all slither out of the woodwork and get into an uproar of anti-conservation.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.