Ann Leppanen: “When we do express earnest concerns about irreplaceable archaeological resources, our livelihoods, our water supply or our air, we are almost always ignored.”
would facilitate an exchange of state lands scattered throughout the Bears Ears area for federal lands elsewhere in Utah. The state lands proposed to be traded to the Department of the Interior currently generate very little income and also provide a barrier to landscape-wide management of cultural, natural and recreational resources in Bears Ears National Monument.
Theoretically, a land exchange should be a win-win proposition benefiting Bears Ears while also providing the state with parcels that can be profitably developed for the financial well-being of the beneficiaries served by SITLA — mostly public education. However, because the people on the ground who “understand best and care the very most” were not even consulted by SITLA or the Department of Interior, the exchange is destined to be a lose-lose proposition for rural Utah. Let me explain.
In maps made public only two weeks ago, SITLA will acquire three parcels from the federal government within our town boundaries that are currently owned by the Department of the Interior. One of these properties consists primarily of towering cliffs that give our town its name holding dozens of archaeological sites, including a cliff dwelling, hundreds of petroglyphs and pictographs, burial sites and artifacts.
Two other parcels proposed to be acquired by SITLA for development are adjacent to the San Juan River. The land is in the river’s floodplain, making development risky and problematic for management of a recreational resource people travel from around the world to float. The Bluff River Trail, which passionate town residents worked to create for more than a decade, runs through both parcels.
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