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Video Highlights Children In Bears Ears Fight

The conservative Sutherland Institute has released a new videothat argues against the Bears Ears National Monument proposal.

The video’s headline asks if the Obama administration will stifle the American dream in Utah’s poorest county. It features children saying what they want to be when they grow up, maybe a cowboy or a rancher.

It ends with the voice of a girl: “But when someone takes away your land and livelihood, can you really be anything you want to be?”

Matthew Anderson, policy analyst for Sutherland’s Coalition for Self-Government in the West, says the people of San Juan County should be central to any Bears Ears decision.

“They’ve largely been ignored and oftentimes drowned out by outside groups,” he says, “so the point of this video was to make sure that those people had their voices heard in this debate.”

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell visited southern Utah for four days last month and heard from residents and officials. She was also reviewing a tribal coalition’s proposal for a new Bears Ears National Monument. She heard over and over how people generally agree on preserving the area’s rich archeological sites, but they disagree on whether tribal traditions and local culture will be preserved if the Obama administration creates a monument.

Mike Matz, director of the public lands program for the Pew Charitable Trusts, disputed the video’s premise.

“Well, the children are very cute and they seem very earnest and genuine,” he says, “but nobody’s taking away anyone’s land here.”

Pew favors protecting land in San Juan County – either by Congress or the President. And its latest poll shows 55 percent of Utahns want to see a Bears Ears National Monument.

Matz pointed out  -- either way – it will still be public land owned by San Juan County’s children and all Americans.

Judy Fahys has reported in Utah for two decades, covering politics, government and business before taking on environmental issues. She loves covering Utah, where petroleum-pipeline spills, the nation’s radioactive legacy and other types of pollution provide endless fodder for stories. Previously, she worked for the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, and reported on the nation’s capital for States News Service and the Scripps League newspaper chain. She is a longtime member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors. She also spent an academic year as a research fellow in the Knight Science Journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In her spare time, she enjoys being out in the environment, especially hiking, gardening and watercolor painting.
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