Bad News Bears (Ears)

December 4th, 2017 the big man (with the little hands), your pal and mine, MR. DONALD TRUMP hacked away 85% of Bears Ears national monument (a mere 1,000,000 acres) in addition to decreasing the Grand Staircase by 45% (no big deal). Apparently, the people of Utah would absolutely LOVE getting their land back! All of Trump’s people told him so! Well Mr. Trumparooni, the people spoke, and they’re gettin heated! This week we basically just want to bring some awareness to what actually went down, why people are so pissed and what it means moving forward. If you don’t like reading, then give our podcast a listen or join us as we record it LIVE on Facebook @ALDALifestyle.

So what the f#^K is the big deal you ask? Well Bears Ears National Monument was designated by Obama like yesterday (December 2016) so I’m thinking trump sees this as partly an opportunity to just undo something positive from Obama’s presidency while trying to hide behind the garbage claim that it would “reverse federal overreach and restore the rights of this land to your citizens” (nice try). Chances are the land that is no longer protected will get carved up like a Thanksgiving day turkey and dished out to various private corporations and the land will then get developed. And once that happens, there’s really no going back…

So companies (such as Patagonia) are suing! The claim is that what Trump has done is in violation of the Antiquities Act of 1906 which is what allows a president to designate a national monument in the first place! By reducing it by 85% Trump has effectively removed it all together! I mean think about it, if I ate 85% of your cake, would you say that I ate your cake? Yeah, obviously because now there’s hardly any left for you! Plus I ate the piece with the strawberries on it so now you don’t get strawberries! Those strawberries were unique to that part of the cake, and now that I ate them, they’re gone forever!

If it is determined that what POTUS did was within his legal authority, then it sets a pretty scary standard for presidents in the future to do the same! Public land is incredible for so many reasons. It’s often free for all of us to use. It’s managed by federal agencies and helps protect the ecosystems that are the very fabric of our environment AND it preserves a piece of American history (especially native American history) for generations to come!

This land is your land, this land is my land, this land is public land.

Check out this map of threats to Bears Ears

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By Colin Campbell, ALDA’s Co-founder

Originally published at alda.life.