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Donald J Trump Utah National Parks Highway

Mike Noel is typical of southern Utah. He’s been in the legislature forever. He keeps winning elections because he’s white, Mormon, and republican. All of his proposed legislation is self serving, regardless of what science or data says.

His son is a top law enforcement officer in Beaver, a city recently found guilty of purposely citing out of state drivers for “safety issues” and funneling them to a local car mechanic (who would overcharge drivers). Nice little scheme.

Here’s what mike Noel said last summer over the Brian Head fire when his friend from the Lyman family started that massive fire:

A state lawmaker in Utah has blamed a raging wildfire on federal logging regulations and “bunny-loving” environmentalists, saying a spate of beetle infestations has only fueled a blaze that’s forced the evacuation of nearly 1,500 people.

Utah state Rep. Mike Noel on Monday linked the huge Brian Head fire that scorched some 54,000 acres to a lack of logging in state forests, and said poor land management policies had only helped the wildfire spread.

“When we turned the forest service over to the bird- and bunny-lovers and the treehuggers and the rock-lickers, we turned our history over,” Noel said at a press conference this week. “And the fire is going to do more damage because we’re going to lose our watershed, we’re going to lose our soils, we’re going to lose our wildlife and we’re going to lose our scenery.”

He continued, “The very thing you people wanted to try to protect... It’s just plain stupidity.”

Regardless, I’d be fine with this legislation passing (it won’t. Noel already retracted it) just as long as they adopt Sen. Dabakis’ amendment: name the frontage road to one of the highways after Stormy Daniels.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-noel-utah-wildfire_us_5954a8ebe4b05c37bb7bf1ee
 
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Years ago, I took a solo trip to Utah to visit the so-called Big 5 national parks. I hope to some day, soon, before I kick the bucket, get back out there and take my wife for a trip through southern Utah. As a life long student of both paleontology and Southwest archaeology, I could never get enough of that region. Naturally, I've been following closely the battle over the two recently shrunk national monuments in southeast Utah.

I understand the whole business needs to be seen within the context of local interests vs federal public lands policy, and both sides are pretty darn passionate about where they stand. But I wanted to just share a few links dealing with the decision to shrink Bears Ears, the announcement of a huge new fossil discovery, and some of the best videos produced of the ancient ruins of Cedar Mesa.

Oil and coal fueled the decision to shrink:

https://www.sltrib.com/news/environ...-bears-ears-grand-staircase-monument-redraws/

The Age of Dinosaurs began in what is known as the Triassic Period. That period is far less understood or studied then the Jurassic and Cretaceous Period. Recently, one of the most spectacular and important deposits of ancient life from the Triassic Period was recognized in an area of Bears Ears that was cut from the monument:

https://www.thespectrum.com/story/n...s-cut-bears-ears-national-monument/373157002/

Cedar Mesa contains probably the largest and largely undisturbed collection of ancient Ancestral Pueblo(aka Anasazi) ruins in the entire Southwest. For whatever reason(s), Cedar Mesa was cut from the Bears Ears monument. Dana Hollister, a resident of the Southwest, has put together a collection of 49 short YouTube videos documenting hikes he and his wife have made to sites in Cedar Mesa. Only about 1:30-5:00 minutes in length, each have high production value, and are a great glimpse of how special Cedar Mesa really is. If you watch any, or all, of these, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3pynWoHELGe5Z0_kQjrUmITvCfwV8zF_&app=desktop

Mobile version:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3pynWoHELGe5Z0_kQjrUmITvCfwV8zF_&app=m&persist_app=1
 
Please tell me this is satire. Please.

Nah, it’s pretty typical of our state legislature. Usually you’ll get some pretty crazy stuff from legislators like Mike Noel, Maggie Dayton, and a few others from Fillmore or ogden.

Remember a few years ago when they debated for a few days on whether husbands having sex with their wives would qualify as “rape”?

A few years ago the legislature debated for at least a week on what should be Utah’s state gun. They then ran out of time in the session (it is short, it only goes from Jan to March) to debate bills regarding air quality and Medicaid expansion.

Utahns typically complain a lot about their legislature, yet, they keep voting the same way.
 
The thing that frustrates me about the “local interests” people are:

1. Their insistence to continue to invest in a 20th century energy source, regardless of market value or environmental impact. Coal is a poor investment and it ruins the environment. Let’s not forget, most of the native tribes supported the monument’s designation. They didn’t want to see it cut down. But once again we see the natives’ interests trampled in favor of local white control.

2. Their insistence, not that dissimilar from the Bundys, that they’re being screwed over by the government. In most cases, the BLM gives them a great deal. Far better than what they’d find on the “open market.”

3. Their lack of innovation. How many of us living in the city have had to go back to school to become more marketable, change jobs, and work harder to pay the bills? Yet, many of the Mike Noel belief feel almost entitled to the economy and life that their grandparents and great grandparents had. Sorry, it’s 2018 now.
 
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Whether opening up these national parks/monuments for oil drilling and coal is a good idea or not (I really don’t know if it is but I’m a big fan of nature so I would probably be against it) I still don’t want one of our roads to be named after such a douchey scumbag.
Makes me not want to drive on that road now.


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I wouldn't mind more temporary selective drilling locations and what not. The wellheads and compressor stations don't bother me in the Moab area or outside of Vernal. I think they're cool to see. Mining Hells Backbone wouldn't bother me as long as they kept access open for the Jeep people. Escalate is my favorite Utah destination but I wouldn't be bothered if it were selective permitting.

Where I hunt the timber industry creates a ******** of good road access, and there is a satellite tower on the Barney Top that creates what's called edge habitat. I don't think anyone's calling for those to be removed so what's the difference with an oil well, outside the private lands dispute of course? IMO keep them public and add a ton of royalties to their production.
 
I wouldn't mind more temporary selective drilling locations and what not. The wellheads and compressor stations don't bother me in the Moab area or outside of Vernal. I think they're cool to see. Mining Hells Backbone wouldn't bother me as long as they kept access open for the Jeep people. Escalate is my favorite Utah destination but I wouldn't be bothered if it were selective permitting.

Where I hunt the timber industry creates a ******** of good road access, and there is a satellite tower on the Barney Top that creates what's called edge habitat. I don't think anyone's calling for those to be removed so what's the difference with an oil well, outside the private lands dispute of course? IMO keep them public and add a ton of royalties to their production.
As long as you get yours?
 
As long as you get yours?

Nothing I wrote was even remotely selfish. What, now everyone with a " keep Tahoe blue" bumper sticker is selfish?

But yes, "This land is your land, this land is my land" and democracy says I can vote in my best interests of the use of the land.
 
Don't forget guys, President Trump eats two scoops of ice cream instead of the standard one scoop. Time to rage against the machine!
 
Don't forget guys, President Trump eats two scoops of ice cream instead of the standard one scoop. Time to rage against the machine!
Strange post
 
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