President takes aim at recent monuments
WASHINGTON — President Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday instructing the Interior Department to review national monument designations of at least 100,000 acres made over the past two decades, an action that could upend protections put in place in Utah and other states where officials have objected to federal safeguards.
The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to declare federal lands of historic or scientific value to be “national monuments” and restrict how the lands can be used.
Trump’s action comes after President Obama set a record with the number of national monument designations he made while in the White House. He designated 24 national monuments and also expanded three monuments designated by previous presidents.
Republicans have blasted Obama for his use of the Antiquities Act, deriding his designations as executive overreach and land grabs.
In early March, two Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, chairman of the House National Resources Committee, wrote to Trump asking that he reverse the expansion of marine national monuments because they said it put access to the nation’s key fisheries “in jeopardy.” It forces Americans to be more dependent on foreign seafood sources, they wrote, hurting the U.S. economy.
In Utah, some Republicans have asked Trump to reverse Obama’s designation of the Bears Ears National Monument on more than 1 million acres of land sacred to Americans Indians and home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites. They say it will close the area to new energy development.
Conservation groups have condemned the impending executive order as an attack on U.S. public lands.
In a statement, the National Wildlife Federation said eliminating or shrinking national monuments would “shortcircuit the will of local residents, hunters, anglers, business owners and recreationists who campaigned, in some cases for decades, for these monument designations.”
Losing protected areas could reduce habitats for numerous wildlife species, the group said, and would be a devastating blow to the outdoor recreation industry.