Tom Wharton: Utah politicians would rather fight than manage public lands

As someone who has covered public lands issues for over 40 years and has spent days exploring what were Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, this week’s reductions in the size of the monuments challenged me to try understand both sides.The action was preordained once President Donald Trump ordered the review. The whole process was a cynical sham. No amount of public comment or support would have changed it.Despite what Gov. Gary Herbert said at the ceremony reducing