Trump Slashes Size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments
- 6 years ago
Trump Slashes Size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Monuments
Todd Gaziano of the Pacific Legal Foundation and John Yoo of the University of California, Berkeley’s law school, hold an opposing view, and argue
that the power to create a monument “implicitly also includes the power of reversal.”
President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in December 2016, after years of lobbying by five tribes in the region:
the Navajo, the Hopi, the Ute Mountain Ute, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Zuni.
“What’s next, President Trump,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, “the Grand Canyon?”
In April, the president ordered the secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, to review 27 national monuments created since 1996, something he said would “end another egregious use of government power.” In August, Mr. Zinke delivered a report to the president suggesting
that Mr. Trump change the boundaries of six of those monuments.
They are roughly analogous to national parks, but while national parks are created by Congress, national monuments are created by presidents through the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law
that has been used by both Republicans and Democrats over the years to protect millions of acres of federal land.
Further south, at the edge of the monument, another group had gathered to applaud Mr. Trump’s decision
over the weekend, standing beneath a banner: “Thank you for listening to local voices.”
President Trump has announced plans to reduce Bears Ears National Monument.
The administration said it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument, a sprawling region of red rock canyons, by about 85 percent,
and cut another area, Grand Staircase-Escalante, to about half its current size.
Todd Gaziano of the Pacific Legal Foundation and John Yoo of the University of California, Berkeley’s law school, hold an opposing view, and argue
that the power to create a monument “implicitly also includes the power of reversal.”
President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in December 2016, after years of lobbying by five tribes in the region:
the Navajo, the Hopi, the Ute Mountain Ute, the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the Zuni.
“What’s next, President Trump,” said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, “the Grand Canyon?”
In April, the president ordered the secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke, to review 27 national monuments created since 1996, something he said would “end another egregious use of government power.” In August, Mr. Zinke delivered a report to the president suggesting
that Mr. Trump change the boundaries of six of those monuments.
They are roughly analogous to national parks, but while national parks are created by Congress, national monuments are created by presidents through the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law
that has been used by both Republicans and Democrats over the years to protect millions of acres of federal land.
Further south, at the edge of the monument, another group had gathered to applaud Mr. Trump’s decision
over the weekend, standing beneath a banner: “Thank you for listening to local voices.”
President Trump has announced plans to reduce Bears Ears National Monument.
The administration said it would shrink Bears Ears National Monument, a sprawling region of red rock canyons, by about 85 percent,
and cut another area, Grand Staircase-Escalante, to about half its current size.