The U.S. government has given AP a look at the plan for a Utah national monument downsized by President Trump. As expected, it allows mining and drilling in lands cut out of the monument, but it also includes a few safeguards not in the original proposal.
FILE - This July 9, 2017 file photo, shows a view of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. The U.S. government's final management plan for lands in and around the Utah national monument that President Donald Trump downsized is light on new protections for the cliffs, canyons, waterfalls and arches found there, but it does include a few more safeguards than were in a proposal last year.
At the same time, the agency tweaked the plan from last year to call for new recreation management plans to address impacts on several highly visited areas, opens fewer acres to ATVs and nixes a plan that would have allowed people to collect some non-dinosaur fossils in certain areas inside the monument.
“There are people who graze livestock, people that like to hunt, people that like to hike, people that like to trail run,” said Barber, who has worked at the monument since it was created. “We’re trying to be fair.” But to Steve Bloch, legal director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance conservation group, it’s unforgivable to cut the monument in half and downgrade the excluded lands into what he calls “garden variety public lands.”
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