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Stop Rep. Stewart’s Grand Staircase Giveaway Bill!

Dec 12th, 2017 Written by suwa

As you know, last week President Trump issued an unlawful order to repeal the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and replace it with three smaller monuments—leaving nearly half of the original monument unprotected.

The next day, Representative Chris Stewart (UT-02) introduced H.R. 4558, the “Grand Staircase-Escalante Enhancement Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives. This terrible bill would ratify Trump’s illegal repeal of the Grand Staircase-Escalante—and make his unlawful order permanent.

Contact your members of Congress and tell them to oppose the Utah delegation’s efforts to permanently decimate Grand Staircase!

Sunrise on Circle Cliffs, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Copyright James Kay

Rep. Stewart’s bill seeks to create a management scheme for the monument that would be tilted towards grazing and mineral development—development that would be dictated by parochial local interests.

And the bill includes a cynical bait-and-switch proposal to establish a so-called national park in a portion of the Escalante Canyons that would be managed not for conservation, but for grazing, hunting, and recreation. It is a national park in name only.

To save Grand Staircase, we need to stop this bill. Please contact your members of Congress now!

This atrocious bill is being given a hearing this Thursday, December 14th, and may move quickly through committee and onto the House floor. If it passes both chambers and becomes law, it will be even worse for Grand Staircase-Escalante than Trump’s executive order last week.

Please contact your representative and senators and tell them to oppose this direct attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument!

Thank you!