by Bill Hedden, Executive Director
To pad his record of “accomplishments” in his first 100 days, President Trump has launched an assault on one of America’s most popular ideas — national monuments. Today, he issued an executive order directing the Department of Interior to study and recommend changes to Antiquities Act national monument designations, including Bears Ears. To placate Utah’s congressional delegation, governor, and some in Utah’s legislature, the review period goes all the way back to 1996, just before the designation of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
This politically motivated order is an attack on all national monuments, but it demands a review of the necessity, scope, and size of at least 26 monuments designated by our last three presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
Today’s Executive Order to review the Antiquities Act is long overdue. [The order] directs the Department of Interior to make recommendations to the President on whether a monument should be rescinded, resized, [or] modified in order to better manage our federal lands… I just want to make a firm judgment based on the facts on the ground...I’m going to talk to the stakeholders involved and formulate recommendations…
– Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
Today I’m signing a new Executive Order to end another egregious abuse of federal power... Today we are putting the states back in charge… It’s time we ended this abusive practice… [Those here are] greatly concerned about this massive federal land grab, and it’s gotten worse, and worse, and worse and now were going to free it up… It should never have happened… I’m very, very proud to be doing it on behalf of you guys… (Referring to Utah Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee.) Now, tremendously positive things will happen… This is a big one.”
— President Donald J. Trump
The review period will last 120 days (until August 24, 2017), with recommendations made for Bears Ears in just 45 days, on June 10, 2017. The short timeline makes a mockery of the multi-year deliberations that led to the designation of Bears Ears, an area considered for protection for more than 80 years. It’s not yet clear if a public process will accompany his review, and Secretary Zinke dodged a question by the media on whether the changes he recommends are intended to be made by Congress or by executive action.
If the latter, executive orders to rescind or shrink national monuments may still be forthcoming. No president has ever attempted to rescind a national monument, and legal scholars agree that presidents do not have the authority to eliminate or significantly alter national monuments. Such orders will trigger immediate legal challenges from tribes, and from conservation, recreation, and outdoor business interests.
Make no mistake, President Trump’s order is a direct threat — it’s an offensive against public lands protections, setting the stage to undermine one of America’s most important and popular conservation laws. In the recent Conservation in the West poll, 80 percent of respondents said they favor keeping our national monuments as they are.
These are all places highly valued by Americans — places on which local economies depend, places that steward irreplaceable cultural resources, and places of spectacular beauty where we can get away to view the West as it once was — unspoiled, open, and free.
At Bears Ears, despite multiple invitations, Secretary Zinke still has not met with the elected leaders of the five sovereign Indian nations who formed the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. A statement to the media from Secretary Zinke shows that he has thus far ignored tribes.
The administration has heard from members of Congress and states, and in some cases, the designation of monuments may have resulted in loss of jobs, reduced wages, and reduced public access...Those out in the West would probably say [the Antiquities Act] is abused.”
— Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke
In light of this order, Secretary Zinke needs to meet with the tribes now, so he can hear about their long work to protect their ancestral homelands, and to learn the depth of their support for Bears Ears National Monument. With all the issues facing our public lands, this order ties up staff and resources, diverting attention from the urgent need to manage increasing visitation and to work productively with the Bears Ears Tribal Commission to re-hashing the long and deliberative process behind the widely popular and legally sound protection of Bears Ears National Monument.
Perhaps most troubling, the administration is signaling where its sympathies lie, and which constituencies matter least to them. President Obama’s monuments honored not just public lands and historic sites, but the diverse people whose lives are intertwined with them, and whose stories too often go untold. By issuing this order, the Trump administration is picking a fight with these constituencies like a schoolyard bully. This order marks a dismal milestone for the administration, as it takes another clumsy step into a moral, political, and legal quagmire.
Most of all, reviewing national monument designations is unnecessary — these places were protected for all the right reasons, and if Interior’s review really gathers all the facts and listens to the American people, these protections will surely be validated. That’s where you come in — stay tuned for ways to engage to let the administration know how much you value your national monuments, and please consider a special gift to the Grand Canyon Trust to support our work to defend Bears Ears, Grand Staircase, and all the plateau’s extraordinary national monuments.
In the meantime, please tweet your support for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase, and other national monuments to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke — @SecretaryZinke — and let your members of Congress know you support keeping our national monuments intact.
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