Days after President Trump cut 2 million acres from a pair of national monuments in Utah, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended reductions of two additional monuments, Gold Butte and Cascade-Siskiyou, to allow “traditional use” of federal land, including grazing, hunting, fishing, and logging. As in an earlier, leaked version of the report, Zinke did not specify what he considers an appropriate size for the monuments. Gold Butte covers 296,937 acres on the eastern side of Lake Mead in southeastern Nevada, and Cascade-Siskiyou sits on 170,409 acres in southwestern Oregon where the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ranges converge.
Zinke, who was directed by Trump to examine two dozen monuments created in the past 20 years, said, “I met with Americans on all sides of the issues — from ranchers to conservationists to tribal leaders — and found that we all agree on wanting to preserve our heritage while still allowing public access of public lands.” The report said there was “inadequate coordination with the sportsmen community” to assure hunting and fishing is possible in monuments managed by the National Park Service.
Besides the recommendation involving Gold Butte and Cascade-Siskiyou, the report suggested changes in the management of six other national monuments to allow hunting and fishing. In the case of two large marine monuments — Pacific Remote Islands, 314 million acres surrounding seven scattered islands between Hawaii and American Samoa, and Rose Atoll, 8.6 million acres near American Samoa — Zinke said boundary changes might be needed to allow fishery management, including the possibility of commercial fishing.
The other monuments proposed for revised management were Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine; Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod; and Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande Del Norte, both in New Mexico.
To read Zinke’s 20-page memo on national monuments, click here.