Rounding up the Biden administration’s ups and downs on land policy.
Monuments
Posted inArticles
See inside the Grand Canyon region’s new monument
A weeklong journey through the under-documented region, which now has new protections.
Posted inArticles
Tribal nations celebrate new monument near the Grand Canyon
How decades of Indigenous advocacy led to the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.
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Utah’s latest attack on the Antiquities Act
The bid to diminish national monuments threatens landscape preservation.
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What new national monuments are likely under Biden?
New designations could help meet conservation goals set by the administration.
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A new biography resurrects a Western conservation writer
Bernard DeVoto’s work has fallen into obscurity, but the land remembers his legacy.
Posted inDecember 1, 2021: Visions of Wildness
Bears Ears is back — but don’t celebrate just yet
Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk unpacks the deeper implications — and limitations — of Biden’s monuments proclamation.
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Why I changed my mind about Bears Ears
The benefits of a national monument in San Juan County outweigh the costs.
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On day one, Haaland addresses Indigenous media
Tribal journalists given first opportunity to interview first Indigenous secretary of Interior.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Bears Ears is just the beginning
As the Biden administration begins, tribal nations with ties to Utah assert their relationships to the land.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
Tribal nations face continued voter suppression
A new book explains barriers at the ballot box.
Posted inArticles
New bill would permanently protect 130,000 acres of Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine
President Trump proved monument designations can be easy to remove; a new piece of legislation seeks to change that.
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Trump’s monumental hypocrisy
Despite decrying destruction of Confederate monuments, the president has dismantled millions of acres of national monuments.
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What are the Trump administration’s new plans for Utah monuments?
Tribal nations and conservation groups hope to dismantle the policies in court.
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Interior finalizes plans to welcome industry into Utah monuments
The plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante provide ‘certainty’ to business owners and communities, officials said.
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Allowing off-highway vehicles in Utah’s national parks is a mistake
More mechanized traffic in already crowded parks is another Trump administration gift to industry and Utah politicians.
Posted inMay 13, 2019: Atomic Tourists
Bears Ears’ only visitor center isn’t run by the feds
With the monument facing stripped-down protections and sky rocketing visitation, a local nonprofit built its own guerrilla visitor center to educate the masses.
Posted inMarch 4, 2019: El Nuevo Movimiento
New bill leaves lands protected, lawmaking neglected
A bipartisan public lands bill punts on overhauling environmental policies.
Posted inArticles
Zinke leaves unfinished business at the Interior Department
The questionable legality of the Trump administration’s aggressive deregulatory and development-friendly policies could end up being its undoing.
Posted inArticles
Ryan Zinke to step down as Interior secretary
Zinke shrunk national monuments, rolled back sage grouse protections and ramped up drilling.