Extremely Important Fossil Site could be destroyed by coal mining.....

[tomclark]

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah

https://www.livescience.com/61059-trump-may-shrink-national-monuments.html

And it's illegal to pick up vertebrate material from the ground without a permit in FL. To dig requires additional permits. This is a national treasure. Would hate to see it go. I already miss the Java Rhino... Things have gone to crap during my lifetime. Hate to see what is next.

[CMD]

Yes, that monument and Bears Ears will be broken up, if the administration and the Interior Department achieve that goal. Both moves will be challenged in court, so it's not over yet....

[tomclark]

I am gobsmacked but I have hope. I hate that I'm still hoping, lol.

[Ron Kelley]

Does everything have to be political?

[2ndoldman]

Excuse me if I am wrong Ron. Being up here in Canada I don't get all of the news concerning Trump and his decisions.
I cannot remember ever seeing any humanitarian decisions made by him. Everything I see is political.

[2ndoldman]

This sounds like an attempt by Trump to fulfill his election promise to revive the coal industry. What I do not see is any benefit to any of those out of work eastern miners who helped to vote him into office.

[Ron Kelley]

What I have seen many times on this site: Whenever we discuss politics it does not end well.

[tomclark]

I'd dig, dive or walk sites with any of ya lol. Regarding politics, since ya brought it up hehe, I do not believe any of us would vote to mine this site out or make rhinos extinct. Politics made collecting illegal on all Florida state lands and it's coming for your state, too. I knew it would happen and worked hard to stop it or make it collector and archaeology friendly. IMHOP eventually, collecting fossils and rocks and metal detecting and bottle collecting etc, etc will be illegal or tightly regulated in all states...who is to stop them? In FL, anything over 50 years old.,..... Mark my words into the future but WTH!!! So when politics screws with my hobby I get involved whether I'm a _______ or a ________ (I'm a ______!) and it is required on this forum and forums like this when it directly effects us. As long as it's not disruptive or rude, etc as Ron rightly intimates.... I'm glad all of us will never all agree on everything (especially involving the P and R words and excepting archaeology, fossils, bottles, etc etc hahaha) and be the same. How boring!

[Ron Kelley]

Tom I didn't bring up politics. The left wing liberal hack who attacked my President brought up politics. Typical

[CMD]

Next week, the present administration will announce plans to reduce Escalante by 50% and Bears Ears by 85%. I don't like it and it saddens me. That does not make me any less of an American than someone who thinks it's a great decision. Bears Ears has the largest concentration of Ancestral Puebloans ruins in the entire Southwest. Much of those will no longer be protected. Everybody knows what's behind the decision, we're not stupid. Benefiting an industry was one of those reasons. Me, I'm on the side of historical preservation. WTF, does that make me in-American?? If we did not have disagreements, we would not have more then one political party. My comment was a simple statement of fact pertinent to Tom's thread. If anybody wants to call me names, let them fly their ass out to Rhode Island and just try calling me names to my face.

[Havenhunter]

IMHO I hate seeing any public lands, monuments, preserves & parks taken from the many to benefit the few. As the old song goes, "they paved paradise & put up a parking lot", or in some cases a coal mine.

[gregszybala]

• "Yes, that monument and Bears Ears will be broken up, if the administration and the Interior Department achieve that goal. Both moves will be challenged in court, so it's not over yet...."
• "I didn't bring up politics. The left wing liberal hack who attacked my President brought up politics. Typical"
• Was the president brought up? Was the comment based on fact or an altfact? Were politics brought up? Or was this a true statement about what is intended by the administration per it's agenda as reported by the administration?
• You did bring up politics, you did directly name call one of the members, you did intentionally make it a snide comment Ron. But you are right, due to bringing up politics it ends here.