Sage Steppe Wild Stops the Nature Conservancy from Bulldozing the Bear’s Ears National Monument

One of the reservoir sites proposed for bulldozing

At the behest of the oddly named Nature Conservancy, the BLM approved a massive construction project to create more than 7 miles of new roads and 13 new reservoirs within the Indian Creek allotment on the Bear’s Ears National Monument.

The BLM claimed that bulldozing the Monument protected the Monument, including all the objects, including the landscape itself, that they are mandated to protect and restore under the Presidential Proclamation.

I won’t say the BLM has fully plumbed the depths of its corruption, but this is a pretty good example of how deep it is.

Sage Steppe Wild appealed the decision and petitioned for a stay to disallow the bulldozing to start until the case was ruled on.

Three days before the bulldozing was set to go ahead, the court ruled strongly in our favor.

You can find the background and details of the claims in the case here.

For our response to the BLM’s opposition to a stay, you can get it here.

For the court’s order, read it here.

Above and below are some photos of some of the reservoir sites.

West Bench Lavender reservoir looking south
Looking northwest onto the lavender West Bench Reservoir number three

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Jonathan Ratner

Jonathan Ratner has been in the trenches of public lands conservation for nearly 25 years. He started out doing forest carnivore work for the Forest Service, BLM, and the Inter-agency Grizzly Bear Study Team, with some Wilderness Rangering on the Pinedale Ranger District. That work lead him directly to deal with the gross corruption within the federal agencies' range program.

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