- Hold up a sign. Get a “Protect Wild Utah/Protect Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments” sign from a volunteer and hold it aloft during the meeting.
- Tweet and post on Facebook. Social media is an important—and easy—way to show you stand with Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Utah public lands.
Use the hashtags #StandWithBearsEars, #MonumentsForAll and #KeepItPublic to join the online conversation. Take and post photos and videos of the meeting.
Tweet at:
@RepRobBishop = Representative Rob Bishop
@POTUS = President Donald Trump
@SecretaryZinke = U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
Sample tweets (please add your personal photos):
Utahns love public lands & #MonumentsForAll! Hundreds at Peoples Town Hall #StandWithBearsEars & Grand Staircase. @RepRobBishop @RyanZinke
I am here tonight at Town Hall for @RepRobBishop to #StandWithBearsEars & Grand Staircase-Escalante #MonumentsForAll! @POTUS
I live in [fill in the blank], Utah and I #StandWithBearsEars & Grand Staircase #MonumentsForAll! @RepRobBishop @SecretaryZinke
Hundreds of Utahns at Town Hall for @RepRobBishop support public lands & #MonumentsForAll! #StandWithBearsEars #KeepItPublic
- Request to speak. As Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Bishop has a lot of influence over the future of our monuments, parks and public lands. Here is a short summary of his positions on some major issues. Let him know how you feel!
Bears Ears National Monument (BENM): Bishop has consistently and vehemently opposed protecting the Bears Ears area as a national monument. He is now doing everything he can to convince President Trump to UNDO or dramatically reduce the monument through executive order. Call on Bishop to back off his attack on BENM so Utahns and all Americans can benefit from the protection of this living cultural landscape and Native Americans can bring Traditional Knowledge together with western science in the area’s management.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM): Bishop calls this magnificent 20 year old monument “a mistake” and supports carving out huge areas to promote coal mining on the Kaiparowits Plateau. This March, 200 local business operators and residents wrote letters testifying how GSENM has benefitted their communities and calling for its continued protection. Ask Bishop why he ignores the vast numbers of rural Utahns who have called on him to protect GSENM and instead chases after an unrealistic and harmful future based on coal mining.
Public Lands: Bishop is a leading proponent of turning federal (public) lands over to the state of Utah and/or privatizing them for development. And he is actively working to do so. In March, he made a “Chairman’s budget request” that $50 million of taxpayer money be spent on the immediate transfer of public lands to state control. Earlier this year, he helped to pass a new rule for the House of Representatives that makes it easier to transfer federal lands to the states. Bishop ignores the fact that Utahns value public lands for hunting, fishing, camping, bird watching, photography, biking and for their unspoiled beauty. He also ignores the fact that the state of Utah’s own study showed that transferring public lands to the state would cost Utah taxpayers over $100 million annually in wildfire and management costs. Tell Rep. Bishop you want Public Lands Kept in Public Hands.
Wilderness: Bishop’s “Public Lands Initiative” legislation (PLI)—a bill Rep. Bishop represented as good for conservation—would have actually decreased the total acreage of land now being managed to protect wilderness values on BLM land in the eastern half of Utah. Polls show that Utahns deeply value Utah’s public wildlands and want them protected. Research show that protected public lands also benefit local communities. Tell Rep. Bishop that Utahns will not settle for legislation that harms—rather than protects—our public wild lands.
Climate Change: Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative threw Utah’s public lands open to fossil fuel development by giving the state of Utah control over permitting and regulation of all forms of energy development on millions of acres of federal lands, and by giving the state large blocks of federal lands for tar sands, oil shale, potash, oil and gas development. Call out Bishop for unleashing a carbon bomb when the world is struggling to seriously address climate change.
Antiquities Act: Bishop has called the Antiquities Act “the most evil act ever invented” and said “If anyone likes the Antiquities Act, the way it is written, die. I need stupidity out of the gene pool.” The Antiquities Act gives presidents the authority to proclaim National Monuments. It has been used more than 150 times, by early every president, Republican and Democrat, usually when Congress was failing to protect threatened areas. Four out of five or Utah’s national parks were initially created by presidential proclamation as authorized by the Antiquities Act. Tell Rep. Bishop he is on the wrong side of history.