The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have held a meeting on a proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon.
Among other things, the proposed 1.1 million-acre Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument would make permanent a 20-year moratorium on mining already in place for the area.
The name is made of Havasupai and Hopi phrases meaning, respectively, “where our ancestors roamed” and “our footsteps,” said Stuart L.T. Chavez, a former tribal council member for the Havasupai. The Havasupai is one of about a dozen tribes in a coalition pushing for the designation.
“It's not going to just be the Havasupai alone,” he said. “This is a protection for the environment for everyone to be conscientious about and understand that it's for their protection and the future generations’ protection.”
Chavez and others are especially concerned about uranium mining.
The proposal has faced some pushback, with a Mohave County supervisor recently saying it would have negative economic impacts.
The BLM and Forest Service are meeting in Flagstaff Tuesday afternoon, and several high-ranking officials – including BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning – will be on hand. The meeting will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. at the DoubleTree on Route 66.
Those who are unable to attend can email comments on the proposal to OIEA@ios.doi.gov or mail them to the BLM’s Arizona State Office in Phoenix within a week of the meeting.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico,
Public debate held over proposed Grand Canyon National Monument
The meeting was held in response to tribal leaders Biden to use the Antiquities Act to create the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
"In the room with more than 200 people who attended the meeting, most were in favor of the monument designation."
- FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A vocal majority of about 200 people attending a public meeting Tuesday in Flagstaff expressed support for protecting large swaths of land near the Grand Canyon from mining and outside developers.
The meeting, hosted by the U.S. Department of Interior, was held in response to tribal leaders urging Pres. Biden to use the Antiquities Act to create the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
It would set protection standards for 1.1 million acres of land north and south of Grand Canyon National Park. It would also designate 12 indigenous tribes associated with the canyon to help oversee the protected land.
“Everyone in this room has a shared love of our public lands. Everyone in this room wants to take care of them,” said Tracy Stone-Manning, the director of the Bureau of Land Management during the meeting. “The rub of that is the ‘how.’ There are always, always, always lots of opinions as to how.”
Widespread support for national monument
“As guardians of the Grand Canyon, we have a duty to protect it,” said Edmond Tilousi, the vice chairman of the Havasupai Tribe. Several tribal leaders discussed why the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River have spiritual, historic, and cultural meaning for their people.
Supporters of the move include Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Ruben Gallego and city councils representing Flagstaff and Payson.
Joe Trudeau, a Prescott ecologist, drove to Flagstaff Monday morning to provide his 2-minute speech.
“I hope you will make the dream of our native neighbors a reality,” Trudeau said, adding that he also hopes federal officials will extend the protected area.
“My work has taken me to 20 national forests. The north Kaibab retains most of the best remaining old-growthmeanings ponderosa pine forests in the southwest. They must be protected in some manner as well,” Trudeau said.
Gosar, ranchers opposed to plan, want more details
Several ranchers from the Arizona-Utah border expressed concern the move is an overreaction by the federal government. They worry they will lose stewardship of federal lands leased for grazing or lose water rights.
“The move represents the Biden administration’s latest massive land grab and would be devastating to Mohave County,” said a representative of Congressman Paul Gosar.
Chris Heaton, a 6th generation rancher near Kanab, Utah, said a map of the proposal suggests he would lose private land. 12News was unable to confirm whether that would be a possibility.
Heaton also told the audience that as a rancher, he maintains several wells and 33 ponds that benefit wildlife.
“If we don’t manage those water resources, there’s no wildlife,” Heaton said. “The big game hunting that provides thousands of jobs and millions into the economy would go away. Ranchers maintain it.”
Representatives of outdoor sports companies and the executive director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department also spoke at the meeting and expressed support for the plan. They said the designation would help protect waters and lands for fish and animals.
The controversy over uranium mining
Uranium is a metal that exists naturally in the earth. It fuels nuclear power plants, runs nuclear reactors in naval ships and submarines, and is involved in production of medical, industrial and military products. Miners extract uranium from open pits and underground.
Contact with uranium is associated with Cancer risks. The topic is especially sensitive to the Navajo Nation where uranium mining during the Cold War poisoned soil, water and rocks, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Supporters of uranium mining in northern Arizona say extraction methods used today would not pose contamination risks as they did decades ago. There was also debate Monday about whether the proposed national monument, several miles from the Grand Canyon at its nearest point, would do anything to prevent contamination of the Colorado River watershed.
According to the World Nuclear Association, about two-thirds of the world’s production of uranium comes from mines in Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia. The U.S. imports nearly all of its uranium. Advocates of uranium mining in the U.S. say it is a national security issue.
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‘We cannot continue to scar Mother Earth’: Public shows support for proposed monument near Grand Canyon
/Cronkite News
July 19, 2023
Nearly 200 people attend a meeting to discuss the proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon in Flagstaff on July 18, 2023. (Photo by Ashley Lay/Cronkite News)
FLAGSTAFF – Dozens of community members, tribal leaders and state officials gathered in Flagstaff on Tuesday to show their support for a proposed national monument around the Grand Canyon, saying the designation could protect natural and cultural resources.
The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, which would manage the monument, hosted its first meeting to listen and gather public opinion on the proposal.
“I have one mouth and two ears. I plan to use them accordingly because we really, really do want to hear from you,” Homer Wilkes, under secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the crowd.
The proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument would include more than 1.1 million acres in three areas of land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park. (Map courtesy of Grand Canyon Trust)
The proposal asks President Joe Biden to designate more than 1.1 million acres as a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows presidents to set aside lands to protect cultural or natural resources.
The proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument would include three areas of federal public land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park and would prevent any further uranium mining in the protected area.
Several tribes in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition have ancestral ties to the canyon and honor it as a sacred place with natural landmarks and cultural ties. The coalition consists of 12 tribes and is leading the proposal for a new monument.
Tribal members expressed concern for plants, wildlife and water impacted by uranium mining.
“We cannot continue to scar Mother Earth,” Havasupai Vice Chairman Edmond Tilousi said. “The threat of contaminating our water is real and current. The pure water that flows through Havasupai Village is under constant attack by uranium mining.”
Tilousi said protecting the land is his duty to his children and future generations. He also mentioned that once Colorado River water is “dirtied by the mining of uranium, it will never be the same again.”
There are 598 active mining claims in the proposed monument area and one active uranium mine in a meadow below Red Butte Mountain and roughly 10 miles from the rim of the Grand Canyon, according to Keep It Grand AZ, which has a petition to support the monument.
Nearly 200 people showed up at Tuesday’s gathering in a show of support. Many people wore matching blue T-shirts that read “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.” Other people stood outside with signs asking for protection of the land.
Many people wore matching blue T-shirts that read “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument ” to a public meeting to discuss the proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon. (Photo by Ashley Lay/Cronkite News)
However, critics who oppose the creation of the national monument said mining for uranium helps the economy.
“The move represents the Biden administration’s latest massive land grab and would be devastating to Mohave County,” said Penny Pew, a representative of Congressman Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City. “The proposal was never coordinated with Mohave County officials, whose community will be permanently changed by this designation.”
The crowd loudly booed the statement.
In April, Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson told Cronkite News that uranium mining could be worth billions of dollars to the region’s economy, and historically has kept communities afloat.
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Tribal leaders, lawmakers want new 1.1 million acre monument in Arizona
“In the mining industry, they pay well. We’ve had some communities that, when they put the moratorium in, the men had to leave,” Johnson said. “The families deteriorated because the men weren’t around … schools closed. Jobs just aren’t there and communities went under.”
Also on Tuesday, Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema and Congressman Raúl Grijalva released an announcement saying they introduced the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument Act. The legislation outlines details and “directs the specifics of the formation and management” of the monument, according to a news release. The bill was not available by the time of publication.
Biden recently created two national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Avi Kwa Ame National Monument is located in southern Nevada. The Castner Range National Monument is in northern El Paso, Texas.
In its proposal, the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition outlined that visitors would still be able to continue to hike, bike, camp and enjoy the landscape within the monument.
Ben Stewart, who was at the meeting on Sinema’s behalf, told the crowd the next step would be to establish national funding for the monument.
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Federal agencies hear from tribal leaders and residents about proposed national monument at Grand Canyon
KNAU News Talk - Arizona Public Radio | By Ryan Heinsius
Published July 19, 2023 at 2:38 PM MST
- Ryan Heinsius/KNAU
Havasupai Tribal Council member Dianna Sue White Dove Uqualla spoke in favor of the designation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument at a public meeting in Flagstaff on July 18, 2023. Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning and other federal agency leaders listened to the nearly four hours of comments, mostly from supporters and some opponents, of the proposal to protect 1.1 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park.
On Tuesday federal officials hosted a public meeting in Flagstaff over a proposed national monument near the Grand Canyon. Supporters for years have advocated for added protections on more than a million acres of public land.
Tribal members, conservationists, elected leaders and others voiced their support of the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. The tribally driven effort would make a moratorium on new uranium mining claims in the area permanent and protect sacred sites and water resources. Leaders from nearly a dozen local tribes spoke in favor of the plan.
“It’s a coalition that sees the real need to protect this area from a holistic, spiritual standpoint. This is coming from our elders and those that came before them,” Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma told KNAU.
Supporters want President Joe Biden to make the monument declaration through the Antiquities Act.
But several northern Arizona ranchers worry more federal protection of the area could disrupt the livelihoods of those who’ve worked the land for generations.
Representatives from the uranium industry also oppose the monument proposal along with some Mohave County elected officials.
Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning and other federal agency leaders listened to the nearly four hours of comments.
In May, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited the Grand Canyon area to meet with tribal leaders and others about the monument proposal.
Also on Tuesday legislation was introduced in the U.S. House and Senate by members of Arizona’s congressional delegation to designate the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument
Public shows support for proposed monument near Grand Canyon
Posted Jul 20, 2023, 12:39 pm
Ashley Lay
Dozens of community members, tribal leaders and state officials gathered in Flagstaff on Tuesday to show their support for a proposed national monument around the Grand Canyon, saying the designation could protect natural and cultural resources.
The Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, which would manage the monument, hosted its first meeting to listen and gather public opinion on the proposal.
“I have one mouth and two ears. I plan to use them accordingly because we really, really do want to hear from you,” Homer Wilkes, under secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the crowd.
The proposal asks President Joe Biden to designate more than 1.1 million acres as a national monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows presidents to set aside lands to protect cultural or natural resources.
The proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument would include three areas of federal public land adjacent to Grand Canyon National Park and would prevent any further uranium mining in the protected area.
Several tribes in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition have ancestral ties to the canyon and honor it as a sacred place with natural landmarks and cultural ties. The coalition consists of 12 tribes and is leading the proposal for a new monument.
Tribal members expressed concern for plants, wildlife and water impacted by uranium mining.
“We cannot continue to scar Mother Earth,” Havasupai Vice Chairman Edmond Tilousi said. “The threat of contaminating our water is real and current. The pure water that flows through Havasupai Village is under constant attack by uranium mining.”
Tilousi said protecting the land is his duty to his children and future generations. He also mentioned that once Colorado River water is “dirtied by the mining of uranium, it will never be the same again.”
There are 598 active mining claims in the proposed monument area and one active uranium mine in a meadow below Red Butte Mountain and roughly 10 miles from the rim of the Grand Canyon, according to Keep It Grand AZ, which has a petition to support the monument.
Nearly 200 people showed up at Tuesday’s gathering in a show of support. Many people wore matching blue T-shirts that read “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.” Other people stood outside with signs asking for protection of the land.
However, critics who oppose the creation of the national monument said mining for uranium helps the economy.
“The move represents the Biden administration’s latest massive land grab and would be devastating to Mohave County,” said Penny Pew, a representative of Congressman Paul Gosar, R-Bullhead City. “The proposal was never coordinated with Mohave County officials, whose community will be permanently changed by this designation.”
The crowd loudly booed the statement.
In April, Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson told Cronkite News that uranium mining could be worth billions of dollars to the region’s economy, and historically has kept communities afloat.
“In the mining industry, they pay well. We’ve had some communities that, when they put the moratorium in, the men had to leave,” Johnson said. “The families deteriorated because the men weren’t around … schools closed. Jobs just aren’t there and communities went under.”
Also on Tuesday, Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema and Congressman Raúl Grijalva released an announcement saying they introduced the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument Act. The legislation outlines details and “directs the specifics of the formation and management” of the monument, according to a news release. The bill was not available by the time of publication.
Biden recently created two national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The Avi Kwa Ame National Monument is located in southern Nevada. The Castner Range National Monument is in northern El Paso, Texas.
In its proposal, the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition outlined that visitors would still be able to continue to hike, bike, camp and enjoy the landscape within the monument.
Ben Stewart, who was at the meeting on Sinema’s behalf, told the crowd the next step would be to establish national funding for the monument.
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