SOUTHERN UTAH

Feds release final plan for Bears Ears National Monument

Oct 4, 2024, 8:00 AM

The House on Fire ruins in the Shash Jaa Unit of Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County on...

The House on Fire ruins in the Shash Jaa Unit of Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County on April 9, 2021. A final environmental impact statement and proposed plan were released outlining the management and protection of the monument. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

SALT LAKE CITY — Federal agencies on Thursday released a final environmental impact statement and proposed plan outlining the management and protection of the 1.36-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument.

The plan, if approved, would “ensure lasting protections for the monument’s cultural and natural resources, including ancestral cliff dwellings and culturally significant landscapes, while providing continued opportunities for outdoor recreation such as hiking, camping and hunting,” said a release from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Tribal input, and feedback from cooperators and stakeholders, as well as the public, is included, informed by the “best available science, including Indigenous knowledge, to ensure balanced use and protection of important resources.”

“Bears Ears is integral to our ceremonies, traditions, and identity as tribal peoples. Co-stewarding this sacred landscape with our agency counterparts ensures we can continue passing down our cultures and lifeways,” the Bears Ears Commission said in a statement. “We hope the invitation to return to our ancestral homelands as collaborative managers will commence a much-needed collective healing process. This proposed resource management plan represents the tribes’ deep engagement with and commitment to, the first national monument established at the request of five Tribal Nations and the first to formally adopt traditional Indigenous knowledge as a guiding principle in the enduring management framework for the monument.”

Read the full story and more from Logan Stefanich on ksl.com.

Related: Denver appeals court to hear arguments in Bears Ears lawsuit appeal

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Feds release final plan for Bears Ears National Monument