 The Public Lands “Day of Action” campaign in June took me to the gorgeous striped features near Paria Townsite on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Photo provided by Jackie Grant, 2025. |
| This year continues to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride for us here at Grand Staircase Escalante Partners. The funding for our fabulous programs has been frozen, unfrozen, refrozen, partially released, and now possibly rescinded – just in the first seven months of 2025! Most recently, the U.S. House of Representatives inserted a section into the appropriations bill that would link funding for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to an outdated management plan from 2020. This action makes it even more difficult for Bureau of Land Management staff to do their work because the Monument is legally bound by a newer management plan that was approved this year. You can learn about the havoc this bill might cause in this recent article on the bill. This week, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed the BLM to decrease or eliminate spending on the management of cultural resources, wilderness, wild horses and burros, wildlife habitat, and renewable energy projects. The directives specifically target cooperative agreements, which are one of the primary ways that the Federal government leverages funding to be cost effective and efficient in its work on public lands and other arenas important to Americans. As you can imagine, we are very concerned about how this will all play out. Our programs are already being affected, as you will see below. Despite the seemingly endless fountain of bad news, I am still finding joy and satisfaction in this work, science and research, and time spent in the Monument. Our work with Tribal coalitions is growing steadily, and I plan to attend the Inter-Monument Tribal Gathering later this month to lend support to Tribal efforts to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Bears Ears National Monument, and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. If you didn’t know, I am a former professor of biology and geosciences. This summer, a dear colleague and I were able to publish a paper about bumblebees and how they use sound to get pollen from wildflowers. The summary of the paper is available online, but you might enjoy this PBS cartoon video of a bumblebee in action more than reading our technical paper. Enjoy the rest of the summer, and we will be back with more news and updates in September. -Jackie |
