Biden to expand Bears Ears and other national monuments, reversing Trump cuts, White House says
Source: Washington Post
President Biden will restore full protections to three national monuments that had been slashed in size by former president Donald Trump, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah known for their stunning desert landscapes and and historical treasures of Native American art and settlements as well as a rich fossil record, according to a statement from the White House on Thursday evening. Biden will use an executive order to protect 1.36 million acres in Bears Ears, slightly larger than former president Barack Obama’s original boundary that he established in 2016, while also restoring the 1.78 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument.
Biden will also reimpose fishing restrictions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monument off the coast of New England that Trump had opened to commercial fishing. Biden is expected to sign the proclamations, using his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act, on Friday. “By restoring these national monuments, which were significantly cut back during the previous administration, President Biden is fulfilling a key promise and upholding the longstanding principle that America’s national parks, monuments, and other protected areas are to be protected for all time and for all people,” the White House said in its statement.
Biden had campaigned on reversing Trump’s rollbacks to Bears Ears and other monuments but tribal activists and conservationists had grown increasingly frustrated in recent months that he had not acted. The Washington Post reported in June that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland recommended to the White House that Biden restore protections to the monuments. Last month, leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition sent a letter to Biden calling for “immediate action” to protect the monument and that “real harm, much permanent, is occurring on this sacred landscape.” Tourists and looters routinely steal ceramic shards and other remnants of the settlements of the ancestral Puebloan Indians who lived in the area and some of the ancient rock art has been defaced.
A surge in tourists looking for outdoor escapes during the pandemic have added to the pressure on the landscape. Tribal leaders were traveling to Washington on Thursday to be in attendance for the announcement on Friday, according to people familiar with their plans. Biden’s decision on the monuments, while expected, remains controversial, particularly in Utah. Miners are interested in the area for its stores of uranium and other minerals. Ranchers also use the land for grazing cattle. The area is also popular with tourists, RV campers, and those who ride off-road vehicles.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/07/bears-ears-biden-monument/
Piece by piece reassembling our democracy.
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Almost looks like an owl. 
Next time somebody says but what has Biden gotten done just smile and take comfort in the reality
of what he has gotten done.
Bears Ears Buttes
https://bearsearsmonument.org/bears-ears-buttes/
The Sixshooter Peaks in Bears Ears National Monument
Thanks for that! 
Interesting how when I was in Egypt, I noticed that there are many many natural rock structures that look just like that (which I figured provided some ideas to construct pyramids that looked similar).
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Those are the buttes I always see in the photos. Maybe that's them from the front?
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Bears Ears Buttes
https://bearsearsmonument.org/bears-ears-buttes/
The Sixshooter Peaks in Bears Ears National Monument
How can anyone look at these natural masterpieces, and not be moved by anything but greed?
A big thank you, President Biden!
