The Obama administration took heat in December for the image it used to tout the creation of the Bears Ears National Monument. Now the Trump administration has its own photo blunder.
Members of Utah’s congressional delegation kicked up a small tweetstorm when the Obama administration made the mistake of using a photo of Arches National Park to promote its new national monument in southeastern Utah. Republican U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz tweeted “Couldn’t find a pic of Bears Ears & doesn’t even know where it is #WorstPresidentEver.”
Classic. @WhiteHouse pic is Arches not monuments. Couldn't find a pic of Bears Ears & doesn't even know where it is. #WorstPresidentEver https://t.co/odaZQoQP4B
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) December 29, 2016
“We should be particularly disturbed by the fact that the same people who made this decision, the same people who decided to declare this national monument, apparently don’t know the difference between the Bears Ears area, on the one hand, and Arches National Park, on the other hand,” said an angry U.S. Senator Mike Lee in a Facebook post. “Either that, or they do know the difference, and they’re all too willing to deceive the American people.”
Then, on Monday, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced his proposal to shrink the new monument. The announcement on Twitter and www.doi.gov includes a snapshot of Zinke looking out on a stunning vista during his four-day trip to Utah last month.
There's no denying it's drop dead gorgeous country. Here's my Bears Ears recommendations to @POTUS https://t.co/OdIKxG7ZWQ
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) June 12, 2017
“The image behind secretary Zinke is drop-dead gorgeous,” says Josh Ewing, who leads conservation group, Friends of Cedar Mesa. “But it’s not Bears Ears gorgeous.”
In fact, it’s the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. That's according to the label on Interior Department's web site
Ewing supports keeping the Bears Ears National Monument as-is, and he doesn’t want to make too much of the photo gaffe. As Matthew Gross, spokesman for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, put it: there are more important issues.
“It’s illustrative of the very cursory and perfunctory review that Secretary Zinke has done on Bears Ears,” he says. “I hope as he makes further recommendations about boundaries that he remembers which monument he’s standing in.”
The Interior Department’s press office did not respond Tuesday to KUER’s request for comment.
