We recently alerted you that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell made a speech that noted that the President would “take action” with regard to designating National Monuments. Now the President himself has used his State of the Union address to make a similar statement. President Obama said on Tuesday night (1/28, “…I'll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations." Translation – he may intend to move forward with several massive, inappropriate National Monument designations that have the support of some anti-access proponents.
It is imperative that the President and Secretary Jewell hear from you as all sorts of multiple uses including motorized recreation will likely be shut out of National Monument areas.
Background: As it stands, the Antiquities Act of 1906 grants the President the authority to designate “…historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments.” The Antiquities Act also holds that national monuments should be “…confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected…,” yet Presidents of both parties have, in our view, inappropriately designated enormous swaths of public lands as national monuments. One particularly egregious example was the designation of nearly 2 million acres of public land as the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument in Utah. Too often when widespread local and Congressional support to designate public lands as Wilderness cannot be established, Wilderness proponents turn to a strategy of calling for the President to achieve similar goals by administratively designating the area as a National Monument. It is no secret that those most affected by land use decisions are those who live, recreate and make their livelihoods on or near the public lands in question.
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Originally Posted by salsashark
