It’s good to be king.
And this is why there’s a big movement out west to take back our land.
President Barack Obama created the Bears Ears National Monument today, protecting 1.35 million acres of land in southwest Utah. The region is rich in culturally significant sites for Native tribes that have lived there for generations. Today’s proclamation also created the Bears Ears Commission to ensure that Tribal Nations have a say in how the land is managed.
It’s a controversial move in President Obama’s last month in office: supporters praise the president for protecting lands and artifacts sacred to Native peoples. But opponents argue that the act was high-handed and prevents people in a poor region from taking advantage of the area’s natural resources. Republicans have vowed to fight it; Utah Senator Mike Lee tweeted that he will work tirelessly to undo the president’s act.
The president has the power to create national monuments under the federal Antiquities Act of 1906, which he invoked today to create the Bears Ears National Monument and the Gold Butte National Monument — more than 300,000 acres in northern Nevada. Both of these are massive, compared to nearby national parks: Zion National Park is about 150,000 acres, and Arches National Park is approximately 76,000 acres, according to the Deseret News. These two new national monuments bring the number created by President Obama up to 29, totalling 553 million acres of land and water, according to the Washington Post.
Via The Verge