Obama considers protecting Native American site; conservatives disapprove

[Knife]

Utah has been on a big kick the last 5-10 years about how Utah should own Utah and 'take back' our lands from the Feds. This factors into it, most State politicians give lip service to it in election years.

[Flagg]

It seems as though Patroklos has pointed out that an Executive Order protecting a greater area is just a paper tiger without the funds and manpower to back it up. And I don't read anything in the article about more of either of these being forthcoming. Perhaps funding is implicit with declaring it a national monument, I confess that I don't know that.

I assume it is. And even were it not, it puts the shitheels who violate the land in federal court. And if this is just "this is our land, fuck off Feds" like Knife said it might be, then all the more fucks to them.

[Alyrium Denryle]

It seems as though Patroklos has pointed out that an Executive Order protecting a greater area is just a paper tiger without the funds and manpower to back it up. And I don't read anything in the article about more of either of these being forthcoming. Perhaps funding is implicit with declaring it a national monument, I confess that I don't know that.

Funding is implicit.

Right now, it is the BLM that has jurisdiction over that area because it is basically federal trust land as far as I can tell (designated a Primitive Area, which is probably why the two guys are stationed there). But the BLM is not huge and it has to cover a lot of land. National Monuments are under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, which has better funding (almost triple BLM's budget) and MUCH less area to cover under its aegis. In addition, the area is already bordered by Natural Bridges National Monument and Canyonlands National Park, which just means that the NPS expands its current operation a little bit. The area is already pretty remote and accessible only by forest roads and the road to Natural Bridges. This makes the area easy to control access to. I have looked at the proposal map, and the way it is structured, you also get the Forest Service involved, because it contains a national forest within it. The USFWS also gets brought in because their goals are ALSO the protection of wildlife and plants.

Most people are law-abiding as well. Much of the protection from grave robbery and site desecration will happen on its own. People dont think much of grabbing stuff off trust land. "Oh look, an arrowhead" and they pick it up, or they write their name on a rock or something. On trust land, that is not a problem. Designate a place a National Monument, and people know and will quietly accept that they are not supposed to fuck with shit.