For over 30 years, I served as a ranger with the National Park Service, helping to protect our nation’s iconic public lands and witnessing every day the reverence and respect that our national parks inspire in people from all over the world. And for almost five years now, I have been working to encourage the Bureau of Land Management to undertake more comprehensive landscape level planning near the boundaries of our national parks.

I thought we were making progress. The idea of master leasing plans to address the impacts of oil and gas development on national parks seemed to be gaining acceptance within the BLM. That is why I was stunned to find out that the Bureau of Land Management is now thinking about issuing three oil and gas leases on the doorstep of Zion National Park in the American Southwest. What a difference a new administration can make.

This proposal is eerily similar to the BLM’s misguided attempt in 2008 to auction off leases right next to Arches and Canyonlands national parks near Moab. That infamous lease sale, which was halted only by an 11th-hour lawsuit, triggered a series of reforms designed to protect our national parks from irresponsible leasing proposals. The backlash against the BLM for proposing this reckless lease sale in the shadow of Arches and Canyonlands national parks led to an inclusive planning process that brought business owners, local government officials and other stakeholders to the table. They all understood that these parks needed to be protected for many reasons, including the economic benefits for the local community.

These local stakeholders worked hard to identify where and when responsible development could take place and created a plan that properly protects the parks around Moab.

The fact that these leases were even proposed was mind-boggling when you consider the impacts those leases could have had on Canyonlands and Arches national parks, not to mention the economic well-being of communities. Yet, nine years later, here we are again. Another BLM lease sale, another national park threatened by drilling.

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I am deeply disappointed that we seem to have learned so little over the past few years. Our national parks are beloved by Americans of all stripes. They’re economic powerhouses to boot, supporting local communities and businesses throughout the West. For example, in 2015, Zion National Park generated $274.6 million in economic output and supported almost 3,000 jobs. That could be threatened now by this proposal, which would replace the stunning views and natural quiet that attract millions of Americans to Zion each year with the industrial noise and pollution of oil and gas drilling.

The BLM is at a crossroads. It can learn from the mistakes of the past, and reject this poorly conceived proposal that threatens grave harm to one of Utah’s “Big 5” national parks and could end up costing local communities and business untold millions in revenue. Or it can move forward and lease these lands to the oil and gas industry, which is using less than a third of the 3.4 million acres of public lands in Utah that it’s leased from the BLM.

Westerners still have time to make their voices heard, as the BLM is still accepting comments on the plan until next month. Those who feel strongly about the future of Zion can contact the BLM directly and make their voices heard. The choice is stark, but Americans have time and again affirmed that our national parks are one of our country’s most precious and enduring assets. So, the decision is actually quite clear: the BLM must protect Zion.

Ellis Richard is the founder of Park Rangers for Our Lands and a former ranger at Grand Canyon National Park, the Gateway Arch and Grand Teton National Park, among others.

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