Twenty-seven national monuments, mostly in the west, face the
curtailing or elimination of protections put in place over the past two
decades by presidents from both parties, the Department of the Interior
said on Friday.
Donald Trump ordered the review last month, saying protections imposed by his three immediate predecessors amounted to “a massive federal land grab” that “should never have happened”.
A list released on Friday included 22 monuments on federal land in 11 mostly western states, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Nevada’s Basin and Range and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine.
The review also targets five marine monuments in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, including a huge reserve in Hawaii established in 2006 by George W Bush and expanded last year by Barack Obama.
Bush, Obama and Bill Clinton were among a host of presidents who protected hundreds of millions of acres under a 1906 law that authorizes the president to declare federal lands and waters as monuments and thus restrict their use.
Trump said the protections “unilaterally put millions of acres of
land and water under strict federal control, eliminating the ability of
the people who actually live in those states to decide how best to use
that land”.
The land controls have “gotten worse and worse and worse, and now we’re going to free it up, which is what should have happened in the first place”, Trump said at a signing ceremony marking the executive order.
Trump accused Obama in particular of exploiting the 1906 Antiquities Act in an “egregious abuse of federal power”, adding that he was giving power “back to the states and to the people, where it belongs”.
In December, shortly before leaving office, Obama infuriated Utah Republicans by creating the Bears Ears national monument on more than 1m acres of land that is sacred to Native Americans and home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings.
Republicans in the state asked Trump to take the unusual step of reversing Obama’s decision. They said the monument designation would stymie growth by closing the area to commercial and energy development. The Antiquities Act does not give the president explicit power to undo a designation and no president has ever taken such a step.
Trump’s order also targets the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument in Utah, created by Clinton in 1996, and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, created last year by Obama. At 87,500 acres, Katahdin is the only one of the 22 monuments under review that is smaller than 100,000 acres, the minimum size designated by the order.
The interior department said Katahdin would be reviewed under a provision that singles out whether a monument was created or expanded without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders. The land east of Maine’s Baxter state park was bought by the Burt’s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby, whose foundation donated it to the federal government.
The interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has been directed to produce an interim report next month and make a recommendation on Bears Ears, and then issue a final report within 120 days. Zinke is scheduled to travel to Utah on Sunday and will visit Bears Ears and Grand Staircase.
Members of a coalition of five tribes that pushed for the Bears Ears designation have said they are outraged the Trump administration will review a decision they say was carefully vetted by the Obama administration, including a multi-day visit last year by the then interior secretary, Sally Jewell.
“Once it’s designated, it’s designated,” said Davis Filfred of the Navajo nation. Trump “should just honor our past leaders and those who were before him.
“He’s disregarding the Native Americans, the first people of this nation. This is sacred land.”
Donald Trump ordered the review last month, saying protections imposed by his three immediate predecessors amounted to “a massive federal land grab” that “should never have happened”.
A list released on Friday included 22 monuments on federal land in 11 mostly western states, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Nevada’s Basin and Range and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine.
The review also targets five marine monuments in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, including a huge reserve in Hawaii established in 2006 by George W Bush and expanded last year by Barack Obama.
Bush, Obama and Bill Clinton were among a host of presidents who protected hundreds of millions of acres under a 1906 law that authorizes the president to declare federal lands and waters as monuments and thus restrict their use.
The land controls have “gotten worse and worse and worse, and now we’re going to free it up, which is what should have happened in the first place”, Trump said at a signing ceremony marking the executive order.
Trump accused Obama in particular of exploiting the 1906 Antiquities Act in an “egregious abuse of federal power”, adding that he was giving power “back to the states and to the people, where it belongs”.
In December, shortly before leaving office, Obama infuriated Utah Republicans by creating the Bears Ears national monument on more than 1m acres of land that is sacred to Native Americans and home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings.
Republicans in the state asked Trump to take the unusual step of reversing Obama’s decision. They said the monument designation would stymie growth by closing the area to commercial and energy development. The Antiquities Act does not give the president explicit power to undo a designation and no president has ever taken such a step.
Trump’s order also targets the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument in Utah, created by Clinton in 1996, and Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine, created last year by Obama. At 87,500 acres, Katahdin is the only one of the 22 monuments under review that is smaller than 100,000 acres, the minimum size designated by the order.
The interior department said Katahdin would be reviewed under a provision that singles out whether a monument was created or expanded without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders. The land east of Maine’s Baxter state park was bought by the Burt’s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby, whose foundation donated it to the federal government.
The interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has been directed to produce an interim report next month and make a recommendation on Bears Ears, and then issue a final report within 120 days. Zinke is scheduled to travel to Utah on Sunday and will visit Bears Ears and Grand Staircase.
Members of a coalition of five tribes that pushed for the Bears Ears designation have said they are outraged the Trump administration will review a decision they say was carefully vetted by the Obama administration, including a multi-day visit last year by the then interior secretary, Sally Jewell.
“Once it’s designated, it’s designated,” said Davis Filfred of the Navajo nation. Trump “should just honor our past leaders and those who were before him.
“He’s disregarding the Native Americans, the first people of this nation. This is sacred land.”
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