Editor’s note: Patagonia submitted the following comment to the Bureau of Land Management National NEPA register today.
United States Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
RE: Bears Ears Draft RMP/EIS – Patagonia public comment
Dear Bears Ears Commission, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management:
Patagonia is a U.S.-based outdoor apparel company with a 50-year history of environmental activism that believes deeply in the urgent, shared responsibility to protect our natural resources. The future of our business, the outdoor recreation economy and our planet relies on the health of wild places.
The designation of Bears Ears as a national monument is unprecedented, and we believe the plan for managing its lands and resources must be too. Thank you for the opportunity to voice our support for Alternative E.
Alternative E demonstrates the strongest commitment to responsible and informed land management of the monument and its magnificent recreational sites.
The land, water and resources of the monument deserve to be sustainably managed. The Indigenous peoples whose ancestors stewarded these lands and resources continue to possess some of the most valuable knowledge and methods, tested over time and generations, needed to solve the global climate and biodiversity crisis not of their own making. We applaud the incorporation of Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and Traditional Ecological Knowledge into the management plan as a critical path to protecting the biodiversity and health of the monument for generations to come.
Additionally, rather than negatively impacting recreation, Alternative E represents a responsible approach to conserving ecological and cultural resources by taking a holistic approach to resource management, which is crucial for the future management of all public lands.
We are grateful the draft plan allows for the continued use and maintenance of existing rock-climbing routes in the monument. However, as an outdoor recreation company with employees and customers who know Bears Ears National Monument for its world-class climbing, we are eager to engage with you and receive more information on how future restrictions, permits and potential fees may be implemented for climbing activities.
We encourage the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to ensure that Alternative E, the preferred alternative, becomes the final resource management plan for the Bears Ears National Monument. Alternative E represents a sustainable and collaborative land and resource management that:
· Upholds the sovereignty of the Tribes and honors Indigenous peoples’ personal, traditional and cultural connections to land.
· Reflects time-tested best practices for land management passed down over centuries from the original, and ongoing, stewards of this land.
· Protects habitat, wildlife and resource biodiversity.
· Responsibly manages access and use of the monument in a way that allows current and future visitors to recreate, hunt and fish, while also responding to the needs and health of the land.
Patagonia operates a retail store in Salt Lake City and supports numerous local outdoor gear shops and environmental organizations in Utah. We began fighting for the protection of Bears Ears in 2013 by supporting the historic vision of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and grassroots allies at Friends of Cedar Mesa and Utah Diné Bikéyah. Our 2015 film, Defined by the Line, chronicled climber and conservation activist Josh Ewing’s story of converting a passion for climbing into a passion for protecting Bears Ears. Building on the connection that many climbers have to the region, we expanded efforts to include environmental grants to local groups, in-kind donations to local communities and regular use of our communication channels to amplify our outdoor business voice in Utah to call for protection.
We celebrated when President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in 2016. When Governor Gary Herbert signed a resolution asking President Trump to rescind the monument in 2017, we boycotted the bi-annual Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City to send a message to Utah’s political leaders that the outdoor industry depends on public policy that protects the planet. Other companies joined the boycott, and the show relocated to Denver until 2023.
When President Trump drastically reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument in 2017, we joined the sovereign Indigenous nations of the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe and Pueblo of Zuni, along with several grassroots conservation groups, scientists and anthropologists to sue the Trump administration.
We celebrated when President Biden restored Bears Ears National Monument in 2021, protecting 1.36 million acres of land across southeast Utah. And today we applaud the Biden administration for recognizing Bears Ears as one of our nation’s most significant cultural, natural landscapes. Alternative E is the best version of the draft management plan to ensure Bears Ears is protected forever.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to submit a comment on behalf of Patagonia.
Sincerely,
Hans Cole
VP of Environmental Activism
Patagonia