South San Juan Broadband • Entered by Louise van Vonno on February 10, 2025
Indian Creek Grazing Impacts
January 24, 2025 – January 27, 2025
Participants and Hours
| Pre Planning hours | 5 |
| Post Admin hours | 4.75 |
| Activity Hours | 15 |
| Participants | 6 |
| Total Hours | 99.75 |
Key Issue: Livestock Grazing Management
Activity Type: Stewardship (monitoring, sampling, planting, etc.)
Key Partners: Western Watershed , Four Corners Broadband
Landscape/area: Bears Ears National Monument (BLM) (1351837 acres)
Measurable Outcomes
Outcome 1: Event Attendees (7 people)
Short Description of Activity
On a bitter cold day in January, a hardy group Broads showed up to ‘hike with a purpose’ resulting in a WIN for public lands. Thanks to our photo documentation and the legal action of our partners, an administrative judge halted (for now) a Bureau of Land Management (BM) project that would have bulldozed 13 water reservoirs to redistribute cattle in Bears Ears National Monument.
The request for help came from colleague, Jonathan Ratner, prompting 5 Broads from the South San Juan and 4Corners Broadbands to head to the desert to locate and walk the actual routes and document the lands proposed for the bulldozing. Our destination was Indian Creek, UT in the Bears Ears National Monument.
Western Watersheds Project (WWP) challenged the project, arguing that the BLM failed to conduct a thorough environmental analysis before approving actions that could cause irreversible harm to the fragile desert ecosystem of Bears Ears NM. Sage Steppe Wild filed a separate appeal of the same decision. The judge agreed, ruling that the project posed “immediate and irreparable impacts” to the monument’s lands.
Broads will be declarants in the upcoming hearings and our photos and videos will help tell the story of BLM failing to protect Monument resources. At this time of major threats to our public lands and federal
Reflection/Evaluation
The BLM reversed a decision and put a stay to prevent the bulldozing of water reservoirs and stopped grazing with a stay.
Photos/Uploads
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Photo Captions
Sorry…I don’t know who are in these pictures!