Was the Bears Ears dispute really about visitor access, or about who controls land, resources, and sacred sites?

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It was largely about control of land, resources and sacred places, not basic visitor access. The central public rationale for shrinking Bears Ears—that people could not hunt, fish or even walk there—was contradicted by records reviewed by The New York Times and by long-standing monument rules. Recreation had already been allowed after Bears Ears was created in 2016, including hiking, camping, horseback riding, climbing, off-road travel on designated routes, hunting and fishing under existing law. Utah officials themselves told federal officials before the reduction that there was “current recreational access.” What changed with the reduction was not ordinary public entry so much as who would shape the land’s future. The cut removed protection from more than a million acres, disbanded the Bears Ears tribal management body, and allowed excluded lands to be reopened to mineral leasing, mining claims and other development. That shifted influence away from monument protections and tribal co-stewardship and toward conventional public-land management that can accommodate extraction, road planning, grazing and infrastructure. That matters because Bears Ears is not just a recreation area. For the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Zuni Pueblo, it is an ancestral homeland containing sacred sites, archaeological resources, traditional gathering areas and living cultural connections. Tribal leaders and conservation groups argued the real stakes were …

Documents Undercut Trump's 1.2 Million-Acre Bears Ears Cut as Recreation Was Already Allowed

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Documents Undercut Trump's 1.2 Million-Acre Bears Ears Cut as Recreation Was Already Allowed

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