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San Juan County Residents Protest Bears Ears Designation in Monticello

Austin Cope
/
KSJD

About 300 people gathered in front of the San Juan County Courthouse on Thursday morning in Monticello to protest the newly-created Bears Ears National Monument.

 

 

San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams was one of about a dozen local and state elected officials who spoke to the crowd. He encouraged president-elect Trump to reverse the monument designation.

 

“President Obama, you have disappointed the people of San Juan County,” Adams said to cheers. “We ask the president-elect, ‘Trump this monument.’”

 

No U.S. president has ever removed a monument designation, and the Antiquities Act does not provide any guidance on how to do so. The process would likely involve congressional action and be met with legal opposition.

 

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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