The 16 parcels “identified for disposal” in the draft BLM plan are among the more than 850,000 acres that President Donald Trump stripped from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument late last year. “There’s not one square inch, not one square inch, of land that is removed from federal protection,” Zinke told Fox Business in December. “He was caught red-handed trying to sell off our public lands to his political supporters,” Jennifer Rokala, the nonprofit’s executive director, said in an email. In the end, this changes very little about the plan to open up the national monument to unfettered drilling and mining for the benefit of Zinke’s industry friends.”Late last year, on Zinke’s recommendation, Trump cut the 1.87 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante, the largest land national monument in the country, roughly in half. The president also slashed the nearby 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument by 85 percent.

Source: Huffington Post August 17, 2018 23:15 UTC