From: BlueRibbon Coalition <info@blueribboncoalition.com>
Date: October 19, 2023 at 10:23:03 AM PDT
To: John Ferro <jaferro@live.com>
Subject: BlueRibbon Coalition Fights for Public Land
Reply-To: brc@sharetrails.org

 John we need your help!

On August 8, 2023, President Biden designated nearly 1 million acres of public land in northern Arizona as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. This is clearly another piece of the puzzle to accomplish the 30×30 agenda to lock Americans out of our lands. This land grab will affect highly valuable recreation access such as the roads to Tuweep Overlook in the Grand Canyon. BRC was one of the few organizations – and the only major national recreation organization -  to oppose the creation of this monument prior to the designation, and we mobilized our grassroots network of supporters to oppose it as well. We are currently exploring legal challenges to this monument since it was designated through the same abuse of the Antiquities Act as the expansions of the Bears Ears and Escalante National Monuments in Utah. In August of 2022 BlueRibbon Coalition filed a challenge to the expansions of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah along with a mining claim owner, a rancher, and a member of Utah’s Native American community. As a leader in the fight against these abusive national monument designations, BRC recognizes that the creation of Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument makes a mockery of the limited powers of the Antiquities Act in a way that will hurt our members. Just 3 days after President Biden’s Arizona land grab, a federal judge in the District of Utah granted the Government’s motion to dismiss of BRC’s challenge to the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. The district court dismissed the suit on sovereign immunity grounds, reasoning that presidential proclamations under the Antiquities Act are not reviewable by any court for any reason at any time.  This stark position is in direct conflict with precedent from both the Supreme Court and other federal courts.  And if affirmed, it would have far-reaching repercussions for everyday Americans who live across the West. DONATE TO SUPPORT OUR FIGHT TO KEEP PUBLIC LAND OPEN! As you can see from the map above most of the access to the monument will be from seven main roads, and the majority of the rest will be closed. This is an area the size of the state of Delaware, with 7 roads totaling at most between 200-300 miles. Could the state of Delaware function with 7 roads? A proposal this radical isn’t about environmental protection. This isn’t a reasonable exercise of NEPA or the Administrative Procedures Act. This is a weaponization of federal land policy to close off our public lands.  The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is nearly 2 million acres in size, and it includes most of the land in Garfield and Kane counties in Utah. The Hole in the Rock Road is one of the seven roads that will likely remain open, and it is one of the most popular access routes in the area. The monument managers are preventing Garfield County from maintaining this road. It is getting so bad, that the county has put up a sign advising users of the lack of maintenance.  The same Bureau of Land Management Field Office that is obstructing Garfield County from maintaining its own county road with its own funds within the monument boundaries also has the budget to pay 60 full-time staff and contractors to develop this terrible plan that will restrict access to motorized travel, overlanding, camping, rock climbing, e-bikes, mountain bikes, wood gathering (which will make extended hiking and backpacking difficult), county road maintenance personnel, firefighters, search and rescue volunteers, and organized group activities. If while legal challenges are pending in court, the Bureau of Land Management is going to field an army of bureaucrats to devise the plans to completely lock us out of our public land, then Congress must intervene and use the power of the purse to defund this attack on our western communities. Recently, the House Appropriations Committee included Section 471 in the FY 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Bill. Section 471 would withhold funding from the BLM for anything that would implement the Biden expansions of the Grand Staircase and Bears Ears National Monuments. The Congress will likely vote on this bill in the coming weeks. We are also encouraged that this same appropriations process is being used to defund further development of the BLM Planning Rule that would sell our public lands out to highest bidder environmental groups. We were one of the leading groups to oppose the BLM Rule as it was introduced, and with your letters, comments, and donations, we have created a challenging environment for this rule to move forward. We are playing a meaningful role in the biggest fights to keep our public lands open, and there are big plans and proposals being released every week.  BUT THERE IS STILL MORE WORK TO DO The BLM recently released their Travel Management plan for the Labyrinth Rims / Gemini Bridges area of Moab UT which CLOSED 317 miles of trails/dispersed camping.  WE ARE FIRED UP FOR THIS FIGHT. But we need your help. As part of our #SAVEMOAB campaign BlueRibbon Coalition has created a 5 step action plan that you can take to help fight for our trails and fight against the 30x30 agenda, especially in Moab, UT.  READ THE DETAILED PLAN HERE Action 1: We Will Challenge This Plan In Court Action 2: We Need to Pressure Congress to Stop This Plan Action 3: We Need to Control the Media Narrative Around this Fight and Others Action 4: We Need to Encourage Industry, Club, and Organization Support Action 5: Order a Copy of the Lost Trails Guidebook and Explore the Trails TAKE ACTION! After you have taken these actions, we need you to encourage your friends and family to do the same. BlueRibbon Coalition is leading many important fights. In order to rise to the challenges ahead we need to keep scaling this organization to be equal to the size of the fight we’re in. With your generous contributions, we’re making it happen every day. We’re counting on you to keep us in these fights. The fights are too big and too important for us to fall short.  Please donate today. Best Wishes, Ben Burr Executive Director  BlueRibbon Coalition  DONATE TODAY! Find us on Social Media! BlueRibbon | ShareTrails PO Box 5449 Pocatello, ID 83202 United States unsubscribe