FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FLAGSTAFF, AZ – As required by an April executive order signed by President Trump, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was to submit his final recommendations on the fate of 27 treasured public lands national monuments, including Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Vermilion Cliffs, to the president by the August 24, 2017 deadline. But Secretary Zinke appears to be trying to bury his final report.
Instead of releasing his recommendations to the public, the Secretary is in Montana today, receiving a briefing on month-old wildfires in the Northwest. When asked this morning about his monument report, Zinke told reporters that his final recommendations include unspecified “boundary adjustments” to a “handful” of national monuments, but that none would be eliminated outright.
This afternoon, the Department of the Interior issued a brief press statement announcing that Secretary Zinke’s recommendations had been submitted to the president. It also linked to a one and a half page “report summary” that contains no specifics, makes no recommendations, and casually dismisses 2.4 million public comments received by the department.
Why can’t the public read the secretary’s recommendations? Perhaps because tomorrow we celebrate the 101st anniversary of the National Park Service, which manages presidentially-proclaimed national monuments that have since become national parks like Bryce Canyon, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. Recommending to eviscerate some national monuments one day while celebrating others the next day is surely bad PR.
Secretary Zinke’s attempt to hide his recommendations could also be due to the unpopularity of what the specifics might contain — according to an analysis by Key Log Economics of the 2.4 million public comments, 99.2 percent of respondents favored leaving public lands national monuments alone.
Instead of conducting a rigorous, transparent review that the American public can read and respond to, Secretary Zinke has treated the national monuments review like a pass/fail class. If judged on clarity, objectivity, and showing his work, the secretary would receive a failing grade.
While we wait for the secretary’s final recommendations to be released, and as we hear that these recommendations do in fact target Bears Ears and Grand Staircase, among other monuments, the Grand Canyon Trust stands with the public. Any changes to our treasured public lands national monuments are unacceptable. We will litigate any presidential action on Bears Ears, Vermilion Cliffs, or Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments that results from Secretary Zinke’s unseen recommendations. We stand behind the Native American nations that worked so hard to protect Bears Ears, and we’ll continue to advocate for the interests of national monument-loving Americans.
