After a controversial four-month review of 27 U.S. national monuments, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says he’s not recommending that the White House do away with any of them. He did say, however, that “a handful of sites” could see their boundaries changed or shrunken, according to the Associated Press.
Environmentalists and conservationists expressed alarm at Zinke’s vague language. “A change can be a small tweak or near annihilation,” says Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Oceana, which has been pushing for preservation of five marine monuments that were part of the review. “The public has a right to know.”
Likewise, Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement, “This proposed rollback of our treasured public lands and waters is as outrageous as it is illegal. And it flies in the face of the original intention for our national monuments — to save America’s most special places for everyone, not just an entitled few.”
Others, though, are pleased that the Interior Department might make changes, especially opponents of southeastern Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, which was designated during the final days of the Obama administration.
“The ecotourists basically say, ‘Throw out all the rubes and the locals, and get rid of that mentality of grazing and utilizing these public lands for any kind of renewable resource such as timber harvesting and even some mineral production,’ ” said Utah state Rep. Mike Noel, a Republican. “That’s a very selfish attitude.”
An intertribal coalition had called on Obama to protect the Bears Ears area, which has been used by several southwestern tribes for thousands of years as a resource for hunting and wild-plant foraging. In an interim report to Trump, Zinke recommended scaling down the 1.35-million-acre monument.
“Other sites that might see changes include the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in the Utah desert, consisting of cliffs, canyons, natural arches, and archaeological sites, including rock paintings; Katahdin Woods and Waters, 136 square miles of forest in northern Maine; and Cascade-Siskiyou, a 156-square-mile region where three mountain ranges converge in Oregon,” says the Associated Press.
National monuments are designated by presidents through the 1906 Antiquities Act. Before President Trump, no designation had ever been challenged. Trump initially requested the review of about 553 million acres of land and sea, saying he wanted to stop what he considered a “massive federal land grab,” says The Verge.
Zinke denied claims that he has plans to transfer federal land to states, an idea favored by some western politicians. “I’ve heard this narrative that somehow the land is going to be sold or transferred,” he told the AP. “That narrative is patently false and shameful. The land was public before, and it will be public after.”
In his report to the White House, Zinke noted, “Comments received were overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining existing monuments and demonstrated a well-orchestrated national campaign organized by multiple organizations. Opponents of monuments primarily supported rescinding or modifying the existing monuments to protect traditional multiple use, and those most concerned were often local residents associated with industries such as grazing, timber production, mining, hunting and fishing, and motorized recreation.” In a press statement, Zinke said that his suggested alterations to certain monuments would be in the spirit of improving public access for these uses.
It’s unclear whether the Trump administration actually has the legal authority to modify monument boundaries. Some environmentalists have argued that the Antiquities Act grants the executive branch only the power to designate a monument, and that any changes to monument boundaries would have to happen in Congress. However, in 1963, President John F. Kennedy “revised the boundaries of the Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico,” says The Verge. At the time, the move wasn’t challenged in the courts, but if Zinke pushes for size reductions, his most certainly will be.
“During a two-month period of public comments, the Interior Department received more than 2.4 million comments — and an overwhelming majority were in favor of keeping the national monuments, according to the Center for Western Priorities,” says The Verge.
Interior Department spokesman Russell Newell told FERN in an email, “We have no additional announcements at this time. The Secretary’s draft report has been sent to the White House. Please contact the White House with any questions about any action on the report.”