The 2024 Public Lands Survey Team: Bears Ears
By Alice O’Neal-Freeman
The Public Lands Survey team embarks on its third year of research this summer, directed by Cyndy Hines. This is the second year where the team is digging into the concept of Dark Skies in the Rocky Mountain West, a topic of great importance as it is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. The unimpeded night sky has been essential to many peoples throughout history, shown in rock art of complex celestial events and indigenous creation stories. The team hopes to learn more about its importance to people today this summer. Three out of four researchers on the Dark Skies team are surveying and researching in the Bears Ears area this summer. Bears Ears National Monument currently encompasses 1,351,849 acres of Southeastern Utah. It is named after a pair of buttes that rise high out of the earth, resembling the ears of a bear. There are five tribes that have ancestral connections to the region, making up the Inter-Tribal Coalition. The Navajo Nation, Hopi, Ute Mountain Ute, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Pueblo of Zuni. The protected area includes pictograms, petroglyphs, dinosaur bones and tracks, firewood, recreational roads for ATVs and four-wheelers, and land that has been used for cattle grazing.
In 2009 the FBI and BLM conducted one of the US’s largest raids of stolen archaeological and cultural artifacts in Blanding, UT, a town near Bears Ears. Bears Ears was initially made a monument in order to prevent such looting, but a monument designation also prevents gas companies from taking advantage of the oil in the area.
Obama designated the area a national monument of over a million acres in 2016. In 2017, then president Trump reduced its size by 85%. In 2021, president Biden restored the monument to its original size. In 2022 the BLM, the Forest service, and the Inter-tribal coalition began co-management of Bears Ears National Monument. One Dark Skies researcher, Natasha, is surveying for awareness of the new co-management plan.
There is a growing threat of light pollution from towns surrounding the monument, such as Blanding. Many indigenous people who have historically inhabited this land have deep cultural connections to the stars– one researcher, Mustafa, is surveying to understand this better– and some want to protect the Milky Way view by obtaining the designation of Dark Sky Park for the monument. One researcher, Megan, is taking artificial light measurements at night and tracking development in order to predict the impact nearby towns could have on Bears Ears night sky visibility in the future. The fourth researcher, Alison, is focused on light pollution and development in the greater Rocky Mountain region.
But would a Dark Sky Park designation attract more tourism and development itself? Could this damage the land because there is not much infrastructure in place? There are only two rangers working in a protected area bigger than Grand Canyon National Park. Some say designating it a national monument in the first place attracted more tourists than they have the facilities to accommodate. Many living in Southeast Utah have conflicting views of where to go from here. Some wish it was not even made a monument in the first place. Some feel the region is now a bigger political stage, and the residents’ preferences for land use are not being prioritized.
Alison, Megan, Mustafa, and Natasha are each doing their own project this summer. They are all connected to the pervasiveness of light pollution, and will be delving into the complexity of Bears Ears. They have prepared by completing a workshop on interviewing and doing research for multiple blocks before heading out into the field.
Megan is interested in predicting possible future light pollution if development continues. She is focused on the towns Blanding, Monticello, and Moab near Bears Ears. She is also the Dark Skies team Artist in Residence: in addition to collecting light pollution data, she has been interviewing people she encounters around Bears Ears about the meaning of the stars to them, and taking their photo. She looks to combine data and art with her project.
Megan is creating a grid of data points in the biggest developments/towns near Bears Ears, and taking photos and light measurements at those points. She has been scheduling meetings at local libraries, searching for historic photos in the towns of Blanding, Monticello, and Moab. She is then comparing the current photos she takes and the historic ones she finds in order to get an idea of the changes in development around Bears Ears.
Megan has been poring through VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) data to find the brightest artificially lit sites near Bears Ears as seen via satellite. She is investigating the biggest threats to Bears Ears’ dark skies.
Alison is interested in the relationship between the amount of artificial light emitted and development. She is setting out to study some of the fastest growing cities in the Rocky Mountain West: Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Colorado Springs. She is traveling to and through these cities to dozens of sites she mapped over them, taking pictures during the day and returning for light measurements and more pictures at night. Sometimes she finishes work at 12:30 am. Alison’s project is the bigger picture of light pollution in the Rocky Mountain West, with historical vs current photo comparisons from the more rapidly developing cities. Alison is also using historical aerial images for the USGS to track development. She is then visualizing her collected data and VIIRS data on the three cities using GIS. She is working to determine if there is a correlation between demographics and light pollution. She is pulling age, sex, location, and other demographic information from the census data, and plans on comparing this data on demographics to crime rates in these cities, as well as comparing it to the light measurements she took. She will do an analysis of the linear regression modeling this data. She has interviewed many people over Zoom, including the founder of Dark Sky international. She was invited to show her work at a Dark Skies seminar in October. Alison is looking to publish a paper on her research.
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition wants to understand how their community outreach is doing in terms of the new co-management plan; how many people knew about it around Bears Ears. Natasha undertook this project, and is surveying people near the monument. She is asking them if they have a tribal affiliation, if they know about the changes in size of the Monument, and if they have participated in the meetings held for public input on managing the area.
Natasha is traveling to Bluff and Blanding right next to the Monument, as well as more towards the Four Corners. She is surveying on the Southern Ute, Mountain Ute, and Navajo reservations. Natasha has been interviewing people in and outside grocery stores, at gas stations, in trading posts, and outside on the street. She has been talking to many Native people, but also Mormons and other residents of the Southeast Utah region.
The theme of the complexity in identities and interests in the area is becoming apparent to her through her interviews. Oil companies looking to profit off the land, native people looking to protect it, yet other native people looking for a job (with the oil companies if needed), Mormons looking to make use of the land they believe is there for their use, ATV enthusiasts looking for adrenalizing rides on the rocky land… Natasha is hearing it all this summer. She plans on writing a long form journalism story about all these different perspectives coming together in one place, the fight for the varied resources Bears Ears offers.
Mustafa Initially wanted to study the impact of light pollution on people around the Bears Ears National Monument. He is interested in the cultural practices of indigenous people centered around the stars. After his first trip in the field his research has shifted, and he is spending the summer surveying Native people on reservations as well as tourists visiting semi-close to the monument. His survey focuses on peoples’ connection to the stars. He asks if respondents observe the night sky frequently, if they have seen a change in the night sky visibility, and if light pollution has impacted their activities, among other questions. Additionally, he asks for demographic information as he looks to analyze differences in how varying age groups think about the night sky. So far, it has come to his attention that a lot of people did not realize night sky visibility has changed in many areas and there could be more change in the future. Mustafa is also working on a Dark Skies website as a place to compile all the research State of the Rockies conducts on light pollution.
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