Our Conservation President
Too often decisions about dams and mining and logging are made by people who have never been to the place they are set to destroy. They are simply blank spots on a map far from towns, seemingly of no value.
We hear about these places on the news on the occasions where there are protests or when they are protected, but most of us will never see or understand what these blank spots truly are. We certainly didn’t until a few years ago when be began to explore wilderness more earnestly.
These blank spots have been the places we seek. Miles from roads, towns, and lights, most are dry and stark, but if you stay a while you can’t help but find wonder and beauty in the stillness and isolation. The scale of these blank spots is humbling, eons of planetary history laid bare in cliffs, canyons and badlands. They are sanctuaries for species who eschew human intrusion and sacred spaces for the Native American tribes who have called these places home for thousands of years.
Half of our national parks are under direct threat of oil development on their boundaries. Much of the National Forest and BLM land in the west is already leased by oil, timber and mining companies. We’ve seen the results: deserts and grasslands scraped bare for new oil rigs and roads carved into virgin wilderness. In the short term, these operations may provide some jobs to the local communities, but for the most part, the profits go elsewhere. When the claim dries up, the companies move on. The west is littered with these remnants of old mining claims—oil, gold, copper, uranium—all gone bust. Most spill toxic waste into the desert and surrounding watersheds. Their owners are long gone, the cleanup operations left to the government and its various entities to sort out, or not.
We write this post for a very specific reason: to applaud President Obama’s conservation efforts. He created 34 new national monuments and protected 553 million acres of land and water; more acreage than any other president. Most of these places are remote and rugged, but some, like the new Sands to Snow National Monument that we’ve been camped near the last few days are close to major population centers.
The photo at the beginning of this entry is from the summer of 2015, taken near a place called the Bear’s Ears, in a remote corner of southern Utah. On that morning we hiked out an unmarked canyon and sat alone as the sun rose above the canyon walls and the sandstone began to glow. It was a powerful spiritual experience for both of us.
The Bear’s Ears is a special place harboring miles of rugged red rock canyons, the darkest skies and over 200,000 Ancestral Puebloan historic sites like this one. The wildlife, history and beauty held there are irreplaceable. It is scared land to the Native Americans of the region, particularly the Navajo and Southern Paiute. For decades these tribes, along with a number of environmental groups, have been fighting against oil development in the area. Their pleas to the executive branch were heard, thankfully. In late December President Obama created the Bear’s Ears National Monument, putting a halt to proposed commercial exploration and development of the area, and for that we are incredibly grateful.
However, the Bears Ears is but one place among many in the west that deserves a chance to be exactly what it is, a wild place of refuge. Unless you have seen these blank spots there is simply no way to understand the magnitude of what is being lost to rampant development.
Driving the push for greater fossil fuel development is the myth of energy independence within the United States. All oil is sold on the open market, none of it belongs specifically to the US, unless it remains in the ground. And, while low gas prices are nice, the cost to the planet is not. Globally, the last five years have been the hottest on record. Extreme natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy, have cost the world economy billions of dollars. As we ponder what we can do with regards to climate change, lowering our dependence on oil and products that rely on oil for production is one step.
President Obama has used his tenure in office to put in place significant protections for our planet and our last remaining blank spots, but there is much work still to do. Our new administration thinks the planet is simply there for them to exploit for profit. We cannot let them undo the work of the greatest conservation president in US history.
We will go back to the Bears Ears this spring to sit in silence and feel the sun and the wind and the expanse of history. We have truly loved seeing and sharing these remote places and hope that someday you can get out and have your own version of the Minnie Life, even if it’s only a week’s vacation. But these places won’t be around for you to see unless we all work to save them. Please volunteer or donate to conservation groups and reach out to your elected representatives to encourage them to stand up to the forces demanding development at all costs. The generations to come will thank us.
The work to dismantle federal public lands, including our national parks, has already begun. For more information please visit here.
