Zinke said Monday at a news conference that Washington sometimes does things "that seem to be heavy-handed or without coordination".
"We discussed (with Zinke) the desire of our agency to, when the dust settles, trade all of the school trust lands that are in the Bears Ears out of that area - which of course is sensitive conservation area - for other more usable lands somewhere else in the state", Andrews said.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke Thursday, May 11, 2017 opposing the unprecedented review and potential rollback of national monument protections ordered by President Donald Trump.
The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is on the list of national monuments under initial review. "Bears Ears is exactly the kind of place the Antiquities Act meant to protect, "one comment argues". But if his visit to Bears Ears is any indication, some voices may be heard more loudly than others - and monument advocates fear theirs will be drowned out.
Zinke visited Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah this week and said the question isn't whether the land needs to be preserved, but whether a monument status is the best way to do it.
Similar gatherings - organized by nonprofits including the Sierra Club, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Utah Diné Bikéyah-followed Zinke all along his Utah "listening tour". "Many wore "Protect Bears Ears" t-shirts and carried signs: "Utah Stands With Bears Ears", "Honor Tribes, Honor Bears Ears", "#whatwouldteddydo".
The Bureau of Land Management has postponed an upcoming public forum on Gold Butte National Monument as the Department of Interior conducts a controversial review of it and other monuments.
That makes a six-year period when people could have registered their support or opposition for the monument with their elected officials, he said.
The law gives the president unilateral authority to designate an area as a national monument, restricting the types of activities that can occur on the land.
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Many canceled all routine procedures and asked patients not to come to the hospitals unless it was an emergency. At least 16 organizations connected to the National Health Service (NHS) in England reported being affected.
The Trump "review" of national monuments sets the stage for another confrontation with the West Coast.
On Sunday, he held a closed-door meeting with a coalition of tribal leaders who pushed for the monument then spoke of his admiration for Roosevelt.
The Interior Secretary reiterated a talking point from Utah Senator Orrin Hatch who came under fire earlier this month for saying that, "The Indians, they don't fully understand that a lot of the things that they now take for granted on those lands, they won't be able to do if it's made clearly into a monument or a wilderness".
President Bill Clinton created the Grand Staircase monument in 1996.
More than 90 percent - or 1.34 million acres - of the Bears Ears national monument overlaps with potential reserves of oil, gas and coal, according to an analysis of US government data by Greenpeace that was reviewed and checked by Bloomberg.
Zinke has been tasked with making a recommendation on the Bears Ears monument by June 10, about 21/2 months before a final report on all monuments.
Robert Anderson, professor of public lands, natural resources and Indian affairs at the University of Washington School of Law, said the argument that presidents lack authority to revoke national monuments is enduring but untested in court.
He said his upcoming decision is not just about how the local tribes, county officials or the governor feel about the monument, but it's also about how the entire country feels about it because it's America's public land.
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