http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/some-hate-parks-and-national-monuments-until-they-love-them
Last week, President Trump launched an unprecedented assault on America’s public lands when he ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to evaluate whether dozens of national monuments should be rescinded or reduced in size.
Trump was responding to pressure from Utah’s Congressional delegation, which has long hated the Teddy Roosevelt-era Antiquities Act, the law that gives the president the authority to safeguard lands and waters with outstanding physical or cultural attributes. Some—though by no means all— Utahans are upset about President Obama’s creation of the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument, as well as President Clinton’s 1996 designation of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
The long-running campaign against the Antiquities Act comes with a lot of red-hot rhetoric.
When Obama announced the establishment of Bears Ears, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch furmed, “For Utahans in general, and for those in San Juan County, this is an affront of epic proportions and an attack on an entire way of life.”
(Never mind that five Native American nations came together to support the monument, and that it enjoyed deep support nationwide.)
During the signing ceremony for his new executive order, Trump declared that he would end the “abusive practice” of establishing national monuments, which he characterized as a “massive federal land grab.”
(The president, clearly not much of a history student, is apparently unaware that since the Antiquities Act was enacted, every president except George H.W. Bush has used it. Trump is also evidently ignorant of the fact that the lands in question were already under federal control.)
Adding additional misinformation to the Trump pronouncements, Interior Secretary Zinke said that some national monuments are “off limits to public access for grazing, fishing, mining, multiple use and even outdoor recreation.”
Continue reading here:
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/some-hate-parks-and-national-monuments-until-they-love-them
George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. Among his titles are Welfare Ranching-The Subsidized Destruction of the American West, Wildfire-A Century of Failed Forest Policy, Energy—Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, Keeping the Wild-Against the Domestication of the Earth, Protecting the Wild—Parks, and Wilderness as the Foundation for Conservation, Nevada Mountain Ranges, Alaska Mountain Ranges, California’s Wilderness Areas—Deserts, California Wilderness Areas—Coast and Mountains, Montana’s Magnificent Wilderness, Yellowstone—A Visitor’s Companion, Yellowstone and the Fires of Change, Yosemite—The Grace and the Grandeur, Mount Rainier—A Visitor’s Companion, Texas’s Big Bend Country, The Adirondacks-Forever Wild, Southern Appalachia Country, among others.
He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.
In the past, he has worked as a cadastral surveyor in Alaska, a river ranger on several wild and scenic rivers in Alaska, a backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska, a wilderness guide in Alaska, a natural history guide in Yellowstone National Park, a freelance writer and photographer, a high school science teacher, and more recently ecological projects director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He currently is the ED of Public Lands Media.
He has been on the board or science advisor of numerous environmental organizations, including RESTORE the North Woods, Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Association, Park Country Environmental Coalition, Wildlife Conservation Predator Defense, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Western Watersheds Project, Project Coyote, Rewilding Institute, The Wildlands Project, Patagonia Land Trust, The Ecological Citizen, Montana Wilderness Association, New National Parks Campaign, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Council, Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument, Sage Steppe Wild, and others.
Comments
From yesterday’s Missoulian opinion page: “With executive order, extremism rooted in Utah casts shadow over Montana”
http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/with-executive-order-extremism-rooted-in-utah-casts-shadow-over/article_a9c87953-e7b9-5f83-a759-36fc7c87e3dd.html
Full page Patagonia ad in our local paper (Missoulian) this a.m. in defense of Bears Ears; a reproduction of it is here: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/300601/patagonia-takes-full-page-swing-at-trump.html
along with how to text your message of defense and support for the national monument to Trump.
The Recap (from the House Committee on Natural Resources)on Tuesday’s oversight hearing on the Antiquities Act: http://mailchi.mp/mail/the-source-find-your-park-881589?e=b5c8b0235a
News release: “Panel Outlines Devastating Social and Economic Consequences of Antiquities Designations”:
http://naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=401915
From today’s Missoulian: “Zinke opens public review of recent national monuments”
Note that they are offering a gratuitous comment period:
““A public comment period is not required for monument designations under the Antiquities Act,” according to an unsigned DOI press release on Friday. “However, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and President Trump both strongly believe that local input is a critical component of federal land management.””
Also note that TWO DIFFERENT DEADLINES are established for public input–with Bears Ears getting only 15 days for comments while the rest get 60.
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/zinke-opens-public-review-of-recent-national-monuments/article_6d4de235-a57d-57fa-87e4-a313ce2ee8d7.html
“The best way to save sacred land?”
“BLANDING, Utah – U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said sacred tribal lands he toured Monday in America’s newest and most hotly contested monument should be preserved but he questioned whether the monument designation was the right way to do it.”
https://the-journal.com/articles/46106-the-best-way-to-save-sacred-land
This is nothing compared to what lies ahead.
PUBLIC COMMENTS for National Monument review now open. Please note 2 different deadline dates:
“To ensure consideration, written comments relating to the Bears Ears National Monument must be submitted before May 26, 2017. Written comments relating to all other National Monuments must be submitted before July 10, 2017.”
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOI-2017-0002-0001
https://www.regulations.gov/searchResults?rpp=25&po=0&s=%E2%80%9CDOI-2017-0002&fp=true&ns=true