BLM hosting workshop on Grand Staircase-Escalante area economic development

The federal government is asking Southern Utah residents to help create plans for economic development in the area President Donald Trump ordered removed from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the president’s order, which shrank both the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments in eastern Utah, but the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been developing plans for the area under the reduced boundaries.

On Thursday, the BLM is hosting a workshop to help as it develops the socio-economic portion of those plans. The meeting will be 4-7 p.m. at the BLM administrative building in Kanab.

"The BLM is committed to facilitating economic opportunities on public lands to create jobs and help local communities grow," according to an agency release. "The workshop provides an opportunity for local government officials, community leaders, business owners and citizens to provide input on economic and social goals for the local community, and to discuss regional economic conditions, trends and strategies with the BLM."

The public can participate in the meeting online via MyMeetings.com at https://bit.ly/2wSksfS. No passcode is required.

A telephone conference line will also be available by dialing 866-794-6762 and using passcode 3142202.

Comments from the public can be submitted during the workshop or sent to BLM_UT_CCD_monuments@blm.gov by close of business June 8.

Still contested

The BLM announced it would start work on new plans for the monument areas in January, about a month after Trump's order. The relatively quick move to draw up management plans drew criticism from Native American tribes, environmental groups, archaeological societies and others that have challenged the president’s order. Representatives argued the BLM could be wasting its limited resources by working on plans that could be overturned by a court decision.

Trump ordered the reductions on a recommendation from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who conducted a review of more than two dozen monuments in the months following Trump's move into the White House.

"Past administrations have severely abused the purpose, spirit and intent of a century-old act known as the Antiquities Act," Trump said, echoing the long-made sentiments of Utahns like U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, who took credit for urging Trump to take another look at monuments in the state.

A coalition of tribal authorities, as well as environmental protection groups and businesses, sued over Trump's order, contending that a president doesn’t have the authority to undo monuments made by past presidents.

Part of a larger process

In the meantime, Utah lawmakers have been moving to codify Trump’s decision. Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart sponsored a bill that would create a 100,000-acre Escalante Canyons National Park, in addition to codifying the two other smaller monuments, on lands that would represent about half of the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

House Resolution 4532, sponsored by Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, would put into law the reduced Bears Ears monument boundaries ordered by Trump, creating two smaller monuments on about 15 percent of the land that was included in the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears monument. The bill describes the creation of management councils for a 211,983-acre Shash Jáa monument, as well as an 86,447-acre Indian Creek monument.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, is pushing both Stewart’s and Curtis’ bills. He also supports legislation that would significantly reduce the president’s powers to create monuments and ensure future presidents can make significant reductions to monuments already created.

Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille.