by Bill Boyle, San Juan Record Editor
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke completed a two-day visit to San Juan County on May 8 and 9 to investigate Bears Ears National Monument.
The visit included a tour of the monument via Black Hawk helicopter, on-site visits to several locations, the chance for a horseback ride neat the Bears Ears buttes, and meetings with a host of local and state elected officials.

At the same time that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a tour of the Bears Ears National Monument, the Department of the Interior announced the first ever formal public comment period for members of the public to officially weigh in on monument designations under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

Soon after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to review use of the Antiquities Act, San Juan County Commissioners made a trip to Washington DC to meet with federal officials.
Commissioners Phil Lyman, Rebecca Benally, and Bruce Adams, along with county administrator Kelly Pehrson, spent two days meeting with a host of officials on a whirlwind trip to the nation’s capital.

A Utah-based Native American tribe is expressing concern about the process that created Bears Ears National Monument.
Darren Parry, Vice Chairman of the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, explains his opposition to the designation in a letter that is available to read here or at the bottom of this article.

by Darren ParryVice Chairman, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation
For thousands of years, our tribal elders would sit down with our young children and tell them stories about our people. The stories were always the same, never a word out of place. Our children were taught life lessons that would help them transition to adulthood. Things have changed.

Possible abuses of the Antiquities Act will be reviewed in the next 45 days after an Executive Order was signed by President Donald Trump on April 26.

See updated story here
U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order a review of the use of the Antiquities Act over the past 20 years, including the creation of two massive national monuments that were created in southern Utah.

An earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale struck an isolated area of San Juan County on April 22 at 1 a.m. The epicenter of the quake is on Mancos Mesa near Lake Powell.
A number of area residents report that they felt the earthquake, including people in Blanding and Bluff, and a few in Montezuma Creek.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said there were no reports of damage from the earthquake.

Last week, I had the opportunity to return home to visit the recently declared Bears Ears National Monument. This federal designation encompasses roughly 1.35 million acres in Utah and is located in one of our country’s most remote communities: San Juan County.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE ITby Jim Stiles
As the Bears Ears debate heated up last summer, monument proponents revealed sentiments that went far beyond support for a presidential proclamation. Again and again, the argument included a near unanimous loathing for the Rural West, especially the many small Utah communities that were founded by Mormon settlers almost 150 years ago.

Portions of Recapture Canyon will be opened to motorized traffic in a decision announced on April 10 by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
The decision comes approximately one decade after a “temporary” closure restricted motorized traffic on 1,871 acres of public land in the canyon, which is adjacent to the City of Blanding.

Prosecutors are considering charges of criminal mischief against two residents of Durango, CO for intentionally cutting off access to water for a herd of cattle in San Juan County.

Utah Senator Mike Lee and Congressman Rob Bishop recently released a study that suggests U.S. President Donald Trump may have the authority to revoke or cut back on the Bears Ears National Monument.
The 1.35-million acre national monument, that includes more than one-quarter of the land mass of San Juan County, was created by President Barack Obama during the final days of his administration on December 28, 2016.

Ryan Zinke was approved as the new Secretary of the Interior by the US Senate on March 1. With the appointment, one of his first orders of business is Bears Ears National Monument, the massive 1.35 million national monument created in the final days of the Barack Obama Administration.

Dan Love, a controversial law-enforcement agent for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), is the subject of several investigations into his actions as special-agent-in-charge of BLM activities in Utah and Nevada.