Jun 16, 2016 – This article is republished with permission from our friends at the The Petroglyph

Just hours after the Recapture Canyon Protest ride in 2014, the following remarks by Utah Bureau of Land Management Director, Juan Palma, were captured in an interview:

“Agents noted the illegal activity on the closed ATV trail and the agency will pursue applicable charges.” He went onto say, “We know from the archaeological record left behind in Recapture Canyon that the area was previously occupied for at least 2,000 years,” Palma said in a statement. “Illegal ATV use within Recapture Canyon may have damaged many of these archaeological resources — all of which hold the history and tell the story of the first farmers in the Four Corners region.”

His remarks were recorded just nine days after Palma personally told San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman that it was okay to ‘have his celebration and walk or ride into the canyon.’  The following is the recorded phone conversation between Juan Palma and Commissioner Lyman.

This conversation took place on May 1, 2014

The question persists; why would Director Palma blatantly lie to Commissioner Lyman and then perjure himself while on the stand in federal court by denying he made the statements in the recording?

At that time, with his retirement from the BLM imminent, Palma had fostered important relationships with several environmental activist groups.  While the Recapture Canyon protest was in the news, Juan Palma’s son, Jacob (Jake) Palma, was involved with the Public Lands Foundation.  Jake Palma also was associated with Utah Dine Bikeyah, which is connected to the Grand Canyon Trust, and Round Rivers Conservation.  Juan Palma also had strong ties to the environmentalist Latino group HECHO.

Juan Palma is the Chief Conservation Officer at HECHO

After Juan Palma retired he became the Chief Conservation Officer at HECHO.  Palma also is on the Board of Directors for Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF).  The CLF makes the following statement on its website,

“Our Friends Grassroots Network–made up of 63 community-based groups, mostly in the West–helps individual groups use their collective influence to advocate for new designations and advance strong conservation management policies and practices.”

In Utah, the ‘grassroots’ friends to which they are referring are environmentalist groups, Utah Dine Bikeyah, Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, Friends of Cedar Mesa, and Citizens for Dixie’s Future.  The Director of Citizens for Dixie’s Future until 2013, was Christi Wedig, who then left to work for the Glen Canyon Institute.  Christi Wedig is the daughter of Federal Judge David Nuffer. It was Judge Nuffer who sentenced Commissioner Lyman and Monte Wells in the Recapture Canyon case, and ordered them to pay $96,000.00 in restitution for alleged damages to the trail.  Dine Bikeyah and Friends of Cedar Mesa are now advocating for the controversial designation of the Bears Ears region as a national monument, and they too aided in the prosecution of Commissioner Lyman and The Petroglyph owner Monte Wells.

Juan Palma was entrenched heavily with several environmental groups while holding office as the State of Utah’s BLM Director.  Without the expected objectivity of a federal employee, Palma fabricated evidence and conspired with other federal agencies and environmental groups to persecute and imprison Commissioner Phil Lyman and Monte Wells.

Most recently, Juan Palma spoke at The Center for Western Priorities and in reference to increased state and local input in public lands management policies, called the state’s “efforts a risky proposition with no chance for success.”

Juan Palma is the poster child for environmentalist collusion with the federal government.  Palma, along with other federal authorities in the BLM and the U.S. Department of Justice makes it clear that they will go to any length to silence those that oppose federal control and the influence environmental activist have on federal lands policy.

Juan Palma, Al Gore, and Harry Reed