Episode #103: Brian Maffly, Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments

The Tribune’s environmental reporter, Brian Maffly, returns to the podcast to chat all things monument. Matt and Brian have a wide-ranging conversation about President Trump’s recent decision to cut the Grand Staircase Escalante monument in half, while reducing the new Bears Ears monument by 85 percent. (For many excellent articles which Brian has written about this issue, click here.) They discuss how this contentious fight, which of course will now head to the courts, has been defined by a tremendous amount of misleading rhetoric. Brian explains the different levels of protection that varied federal land has and the two chat about the likelihood that oil, gas, coal or uranium resources will be developed at either monument in the coming years. Lastly, they chat about the role that Native American nations have played in the monument fight. Click here for Brian’s Twitter feed, the Tribune’s website or Brian’s Authory page.