Recently, 44 businesses at the gateway to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument wrote Congress opposing the resolution pushed by Mike Lee and Celeste Maloy to overturn the current management plan that prioritizes conservation.  Since its establishment in 1996, the monument has become a r ecreation and scientific magnet for Utah’s growing tourism industry that supports the sustainable livelihoods of these and other businesses. Almost a million people visit the monument every year, primarily for recreation. The current effort by Lee and Malloy to overturn the current Resource Management Plan using the Congressional Review Act is a dangerous overreach that threatens one of our nation’s most significant natural and cultural treasures.  The Congressional Review Act is meant as a tool to review major management regulations, not to give Congress veto power over any agency decision, like prioritizing conservation that someone in Congress doesn’t like. Until last year, the act was never used as a weapon to attack all levels of public lands management. For the monument, this backdoor process disregards decades of public input, scientific research, and tribal consultation. The impact could be devastating to the gateway communities as well as to the land itself and the wildlife that call it home. Grand Staircase-Escalante is more than just a scenic landscape for recreation. It is a science monument world-renowned for its paleontological discoveries, including over 20 new species of dinosaurs, and over 660 species of native bees. The monument protects critical water supplies, a vast biodiversity across five life zones, and sacred ancestral lands for the Hopi, Navajo, Paiute, Ute, and Zuni tribes.  The move to eliminate the 2025 management plan would: Harm Local Economies: Protected lands are proven drivers of economic growth.  Since 2001, sustainable jobs in the region have grown by 51%, with over half the local economy now based on monument-related services. Open Doors to Extraction: Removing protections allow for landscape-scale clear cutting of pinyon-juniper forests and loss of the species dependent upon them, expanded mining such as coal mines, and unregulated off-road vehicle use that disrupts the biological soil crust and leads to significant water loss. Endanger Cultural Sites: Sacred areas would face increased risk from looting, vandalism, and degradation. Set a Dangerous Precedent: Using the Congressional Review Act to target a management plan, rather than a formal rule, threatens the stability of every national monument and park in the country. This sidesteps transparency, public input, and generates uncertainty for everyone using these public lands for recreation, science, or economic stability for their businesses. Public opinion is clear: 74% of Utah voters and 91% of Western voters support keeping these monument protections in place. Why is the Utah delegation so determined to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for this state?  I urge them to withdraw the resolution and honor the gateway communities that thrive sustainably because of the monument and honor the decades of work that have gone into preserving this iconic landscape for current and future generations. Marion Klaus Park City The post There they go again appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less