Critics Warn Federal Plan Endangers National Monuments Land

"...more than 12,000 years of human history written on this rugged landscape has remained in place, undisturbed by tourism or development...Here at the backdoor of the Grand Canyon, two national monuments...are poised to absorb the effects of the explosive growth [from] two of the fastest expanding areas in the nation."

"The federal agency that oversees much of the land in the Arizona Strip, the Bureau of Land Management, is preparing a long-range plan for the area that would allow uranium mining and oil and gas exploration across 96% of the lands outside the monuments...Critics, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the local County Board of Supervisors, say the agency's plan fails to protect the two monuments...[BLM officials say the plan] is a commendable effort to reconcile the agency's tradition of various uses on public land with its newer mandate to conserve national monuments."