Word: monumented
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...loophole that exempts land from some federal protection if there is sufficient development to indicate the land is being put to use. They are thus taking to the wilderness and cutting roads across the protected acres before the government completes its formal three-year assessment of how the monument should be managed. Every mile they mark could be a mile unfettered...
...million years ago as colliding land masses lifted the Colorado Plateau while rivers carved into it. The result is a series of gigantic "steps," each more than 900 ft. tall and named after the characteristic color of its rocks: Pink Cliffs, Gray Cliffs, White Cliffs, Vermilion Cliffs. The monument's center is so remote that ambient noise can drop below the threshold of human hearing...
...decision to single it out for protection fell like a hammer blow in Utah. Segments of the local economy were already faltering, and with the ranching and logging industries falling on hard times, mining always seemed like a promising alternative. The coal from just one site in the monument could earn the state $3 billion. An additional $1 billion would flow into Utah's education system under a century-old provision that requires the state to use a percentage of all revenue from public lands to build and maintain schools...
...Clinton Administration, citing these revelations, remains committed to protecting the disputed land. It promises to compensate local mining interests by swapping federal lands of equal value for those that lie within the monument. Utah Senator Bob Bennett sniffs at this, insisting that there is no land of equal value. Bennett is also unimpressed with Clinton's promise that all the current uses of the region, except mining, would be unchanged by its new status. The Senator wants that pledge written into law. "We'll see how sincere they are," he says...
Many in Utah are similarly unpersuaded by the suggestion that they will benefit from an increase in free-spending tourists. Rancher Dell LeFevre, whose land is surrounded by the monument, was told by an entrepreneur that he could get $5 million if he sold his spread to a developer. "I don't give a damn if they offer me $10 million," he asserts. "I just want to be a cowboy...