Attacking Roosevelt’s legacy

President Donald Trump, ever intent on expunging the legacy of President Barack Obama, is on the verge of undermining the priceless conservation vision of President Theodore Roosevelt as well. After ordering a review of 27 national monuments in the spring, Trump is reported to have decided to greatly shrink two monuments covering millions of acres in Utah, weakening strict federal protections and reopening vast areas to possible commercial use. Precise details of the president’s decision are still unclear. But what’s already clear is that it will result in a major legal counterattack by Native American tribal leaders and environmentalists that, in turn, will test the scope of the president’s authority to abolish or significantly modify monument designations under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

The act gave presidents unilateral authority to protect historic landscapes and structures that were being destroyed, looted and desecrated as the West was settled. Roosevelt created 18 national monuments in the course of protecting 230 million acres of public lands. …

It was in Roosevelt’s spirit that a bipartisan succession of presidents added to what is now a total of 170 national monuments. Even a marine sanctuary established by President George W. Bush, and added to by Obama, has been targeted for review.

Judging by what we have seen so far, there will be no such enlargements by the Trump regime, only subtractions, in service to commercial interests and to the durable belief among some in the West that the public lands belong not to the American people but to them.

That would be a tragic retreat from the Roosevelt vision.