Interior Secretary Recommendations on National Monuments Remain Secret

Pictured: US Sec. of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Cascade Siskiyou National Monuments.

The review came in response to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in April that instructed Zinke to review lands designated as national monuments by the Clinton and Obama administrations under the century-old Antiquities Act. It appeared on Trump’s review list.

Conservationists predict Trump intends to shrink some existing monuments to open up lands for new mining and drilling operations, a potential move that Friends of the Earth’s Ben Schreiber described as a “blatant handouts to the oil and gas industry”.

The White House said only that it received Zinke’s recommendations Thursday, a deadline set months ago.

The “National Monuments” were created by the Antiquities Act of 1906 and were used by famous American presidents, Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 to protect the Grand Canyon, and by Woodrow Wilson in 1918 to protect Alaska’s Katmai National Monument that totaled 2,800,000 acres (11,000 square km).

Across the political spectrum, the blowback was swift, with GOP and big energy chiefs lauding the decision as a fair compromise, while environmental advocates and tribal reps expressed outrage at the lack of clarity presented in Zinke’s official recommendation document.

The agency released a draft summary today that gave no information about which monuments would be affected or how extensively they might be changed, but did say that in some monuments, “boundaries could not be supported by science or reasons of practical resource management”.

In the interview, Zinke struck back against conservationists who had warned of impending mass sell-offs of public lands by the Trump administration.

However, the secretary did say that he recommended boundary changes for a “handful” of sites, the Associated Press reported. Any areas removed from the protected lands would also remain under federal control and public access would remain or improve.

Supporters cite a range of concerns regarding why they oppose shrinking or eliminating the monuments.

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, called Zinke’s review a pretext for “selling out our public lands and waters” to the oil industry and others.

“Bears Ears is an American wonderland of sandstone canyons, desert mesas, and forested highlands sacred to Native American peoples and important to us all”.

If the Trump administration prevails in undermining a previous president’s legacy – even within the narrowest parameters of only changing boundaries – it makes any monument susceptible to tinkering. The Utah State Legislature passed a resolution earlier this year calling on the president to rescind both monuments.

Groups that consider the millions of acres designated for protection by President Barack Obama and other past presidents part of a massive federal land grab voiced optimism that Zinke wants to reign in some areas.

For ranchers and people in the West who use public lands, the concept of an Antiquities Act designation just hits them the wrong way, Ethan Lane, executive director of the Public Land Council, told NewsHour. Mojave Trails National Monument is still under review.

Woodrow Wilson almost halved the acreage of Mount Olympus National Monument, which Theodore Roosevelt had established six years earlier. Zinke is trying to “thread the needle” and will put together recommendations to satisfy all parties involved, a source told the paper.

“It is my hope that the president will carefully study the secretary’s recommendations to narrow the application of the Antiquities Act”.