A new statewide ad campaign aims to sell Utahns on the newly created Bears Ears National Monument.
The ads, produced by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, will run on TV stations statewide for the next 3-4 weeks.
In the ad, images of the new monument are accompanied by narration which says:
“Bears Ears National Monument is the newest edition to Utah’s great national parks and monuments.
“This is a place rich in Utah’s shared history. From the Hole in the Rock Trail to thousands of Native American sacred sites. Which is why seven of the Native American tribes in Utah support the monument.
“Bears Ears National Monument. A good thing for Utah.”
Scott Groene, Executive Director for SUWA, says they’re working to counter the anti-Bears Ears rhetoric coming from Capitol Hill.
The ad is intended to build support for the monument among Utahns,” he said in an email to UtahPolicy.com. “We trust the State’s residents will overlook the rhetoric from Gary Herbert and Mike Noel, and embrace the Monument just as with past designations.”
At the beginning of the 2017 legislature, lawmakers rushed through a resolution calling on President Donald Trump to erase the Bears Ears Monument, which was established by President Barack Obama in December of last year, just before he left office. Many Republican lawmakers hope Trump will make good on their request soon after Ryan Zinke is confirmed as the new Secretary of the Interior.
