The Trump administration is to open vast areas of the protected Grand Staircase-Escelante National Monument to mining and oil and gas exploration. Together with the removal of a million acres from Bears Ears National Monument this comprises the largest rollback of protection in US history.
So why is it “doing a Stonehenge”? Well, Governor Gary Herbert said “As I have reiterated for years, monuments should be as small as possible to protect artifacts and cultural resources” and County Commissioner Tammy Pearson said “The downsizing to a manageable acreage was the most amazing, selfless act of a sitting President of the United States. Utah thanks you President Trump.”
As small as possible …
Meanwhile at Stonehenge Historic England et al are campaigning to downsize the protected area surrounding Stonehenge by supporting the digging of a mile of new dual carriageway across it. Arguably, the largest rollback of protection in British history.
So it’s clear that Trump is doing a Stonehenge in Utah and, far more disgracefully, Historic England, English Heritage and the National Trust are doing a Trump in Wiltshire.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
12/02/2020 at 15:03
paulintheswimhotmailcom
Historic England, English Heritage and the National Trust will go down in history as having done enormous and irrevocable damage to the wider Stonehenge landscape. All they are concerned about is Stonehenge itself, which incidentally they own and make a vast profit from. They maintain their deceit that other areas wont be significantly damaged, despite this being in the face of strong opposition from the consortium of world class archaeologists who have had the courage to risk their careers by opposing them.
Historic England, English Heritage and the National Trust should be ashamed of all the sanctimonious words on each of their websites saying how much they care etc,etc. They are guilty of hypocrisy and double standards in the absolute extreme.
12/02/2020 at 17:58
heritageaction
Let’s hope they’re not successful Paul!