Interior Secretary Recommends Gutting Bears Ears, Patagonia Responds

The Anasazi ruins at Cedar Mesa in Bears Ears National Historic Monument. Bureau of Land Management photo.

BEARS EARS, Ut. — According to the Washington Post, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke set a slow-moving legal battle in motion Monday when he recommended that President Trump “revise the existing boundaries” of Bears Ears National Monument in Southern Utah.

The news was swiftly met by the threat of lawsuits from Indian American tribes and conservation organizations.



In April, Trump ordered a review of 27 National Monuments — all of which were designated by prior sitting presidents. Several of these monuments are the sites of extensive mineral/energy deposits, and have been the cause of much political division starting with the  Sagebrush Rebellion in the 1970s and '80s, and currently manifesting as the public lands fight playing out today.

Bears Ears, totaling 1.35-million-acres and designated a National Monument in December by President Barack Obama, was hotly contested well before the designation. Utah’s Republican party supports multiple uses for the land, while environmentalists, Native Americans and the Outdoor Recreation industry support full protections.

The original decision to protect Bears Ears was made to combat the growing cases of vandalism and theft to the area’s archaeological sites, which number over 100,000. But in defending the decision to shrink Bears Ears, Secretary Zinke told reporters that “If you look at the Bears Ears as a whole, there’s a lot more drop-dead gorgeous land than there are historic, prehistoric objects.”

He also told reporters that tribal leaders were receptive to shrinking Bears Ears. “Overall, in talking to tribal leadership… they’re pretty happy and willing to work with us,” he said.

We don’t want it to be rescinded … We wanted it left alone.

However, Navajo Nation representative Davis Filfred told The Post that they were not on board with the decision and had been largely sidelined during the input process. “I haven’t been happy with him since day one,” said Filfred. “We don’t want it to be rescinded … We wanted it left alone.”

According to Filfred, if congress attempts to reduce or change the Monument designation, the Navajo, Ute, Zuni and Hopi tribes will bring formal litigation.

Conservation organizations Earthjustice, the National Wildlife Federation and Patagonia voiced their strong opposition to Zinke’s recommendation, with NWF CEO Collin O’Mara saying that the decision was “disappointing and baffling.”

Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia, blasted the decision and proclaimed that the clothing/conservation company would not sit idly by and watch as the Bears Ears National-Monument status was threatened.

"Despite months of rhetoric claiming his respect for Teddy Roosevelt's legacy of public lands protection, Secretary Zinke revealed he is just another politician looking to exploit and develop America’s public lands at the expense of our children and grandchildren.” Marcario wrote in a Patagonia Facebook post. 

“Secretary Zinke’s recommendation that the president shrink the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument ignores the law and public outcry, including over one million comments in support of monument status," she continued.  Bears Ears holds irreplaceable cultural, ecological and recreational value and it needs our protection. If the president decides to usurp Congress’s authority and shrink the boundaries on his own, Patagonia will take legal action to defend our public lands. We hope everyone who cares about public lands will continue to let their voices be heard."

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stash member Sam Morse

TGR Editor-at-Large. author of The Ski Town Fairytale and creative behind The Bumion. Lover of steep-and-deep lines, long trails—and hot springs waiting in the distance.