{"id":67670,"date":"2017-05-09T20:10:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-10T02:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friends-foes-of-monument-jockey-for-zinkes-ear\/"},"modified":"2017-05-10T02:10:22","modified_gmt":"2017-05-10T02:10:22","slug":"friends-foes-of-monument-jockey-for-zinkes-ear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/friends-foes-of-monument-jockey-for-zinkes-ear\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends, foes of monument jockey for Zinke\u2019s ear"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bruce
Bruce Adams, chairman of the San Juan County Commission, makes it clear where he stands on the recently designated Bears Ears National Monument designation. Adams arrived at the Blanding airport on Monday to greet Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.<\/span>Francisco Kjolseth\/The Salt Lake Tribune<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adams, a county commissioner, joined Zinke on a helicopter ride and described the landscape of Bears Ears National Monument \u2014 one of 27 such sites that President Donald Trump has ordered Zinke to review to determine if they were properly established as monuments.<\/p>\n

Adams, who opposes a monument in the area, said Tuesday he gave Zinke a cowboy hat bearing the phrase \u201cMake San Juan County Great Again\u201d and told him the monument designation could hurt residents\u2019 ability to earn a living from livestock and agriculture.<\/p>\n

Adams was one of many opponents and supporters of Bears Ears who jockeyed for position with Zinke on his four-day visit to Utah. Some Native Americans and environmental groups worried that Zinke listened much more to opponents.<\/p>\n

Zinke met for an hour on Sunday with a coalition of tribal leaders who spent years campaigning for the monument on sacred tribal land that\u2019s home to ancient cliff dwellings and other archaeological sites.<\/p>\n

In Bears Ears on Monday, one woman wearing a T-shirt supportive of the monument asked Zinke why he only met with tribal leaders for such a short time.<\/p>\n

Zinke, who was shaking another supporter\u2019s hand, turned to face the woman and said: \u201cBe nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also spent time in closed-door meetings Sunday and Monday with Utah\u2019s Republican elected officials, including Gov. Gary Herbert, who has called for the repeal of the monument designation.<\/p>\n

Some later accompanied him on the helicopter ride and a short hike in the monument to look at cliff dwellings \u2014 as media and Bears Ears supporters were kept at a distance.<\/p>\n

State and federal officials said the hike was a private meeting.<\/p>\n

In Blanding, with a population of 3,400 people, banners around town say \u201c#RescindBearsEars.\u201d In Monticello, 20 miles north, large yellow stickers in the shape of a bear with the words \u201cno monument\u201d could be seen on the windows of pickup trucks.<\/p>\n

Zinke on Tuesday visited a conservation area and ranch in the monument. The Montana Republican later told reporters he hasn\u2019t made up his mind about whether the 1.3 million acre (5,300 square kilometers) area should remain a monument.<\/p>\n

However, he did point out that despite the contentious debate in Utah, all sides agree that at least some of the land needs protection.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a solution out there,\u201d said Zinke, who has until June 10 to recommend that Trump rescind the monument, shrink its borders, enlarge it, or leave it as is.<\/p>\n

Conservation groups worry that Zinke\u2019s review jeopardizes protections for monuments around the country. Environmental groups have threatened lawsuits.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Zinke is set to head west and visit Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Created in 1996, it\u2019s the oldest monument on the list of those to be reviewed.<\/p>\n

Zinke said multiple times that he wants to hear different points of view. He said Tuesday he has concluded that Bears Ears is becoming a bigger attraction and the government must have a plan to manage visitors and protect archaeological sites.<\/p>\n

Heidi Redd, who has been ranching 50 years on lands now within the monument, said she thinks the monument could be smaller but noted that it doesn\u2019t restrict her cattle grazing.<\/p>\n

Redd showed Zinke around her ranch and said she worries whether the government will build infrastructure such as bathrooms and install railings around cultural sites to make sure visitors don\u2019t trample the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would rather we not have a monument if you are not going to fund to protect it. And now the genie is out of the bottle,\u201d Redd said. \u201cThere is no way people aren\u2019t coming now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adams, chairman of the San Juan County Commission, makes it clear where he stands on the recently designated Bears Ears National Monument designation. Adams arrived at the Blanding airport on Monday to greet Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.Francisco Kjolseth\/The Salt Lake Tribune Adams, a county commissioner, joined Zinke on a helicopter ride and described the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[122,561,144,121],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-67670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-monument-and-heritage-site","tag-native-american","tag-towaoc","tag-utah"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67670"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=67670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}