Dear Secretary Zinke,
A few days ago, President Donald Trump made his displeasure with our national monument system and the Antiquities Act official by calling for a review of national monument designations and issuing an executive order that threatens to undermine the Antiquities Act and the places it has protected.
The Antiquities Act has been used since 1906, when it was signed into law by Former President Theodore Roosevelt, by both Republican and Democrat presidents to protect public lands as national monuments. As you know, Secretary Ryan Zinke, it’s thanks to Roosevelt’s vision and the Antiquities Act that sites of national importance — from the Statue of Liberty to the Grand Canyon to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument — are permanently protected...