Earlier this year, Mill Springs Battlefield
National Monument was authorized in sweeping public lands legislation.
Federal lands, including those designated as
national monuments, are for all the people.
It also would nearly halve the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, also in southern Utah, splitting it into three units.
Trump's order reduces the size of the iconic Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument in Utah, where numerous dinosaur fossils have been found.
Reducing areas protected as
national monuments, including Cascade- Siskiyou, would offer financial benefits for a few companies and individuals.
Conservation groups, state attorneys general and Native American tribes, including the five tribes which lobbied to create one of the sites under review -- Bears Ears
National Monument in Utah -- have already said they plan to challenge any changes in court.
Each
national monument that has been designated, through the legislative route or the Antiquities Act, has been different.
Earlier this month, President Obama expanded the area of the Papahanaumokuakea
National Monument near Hawaii.
Fortunately, in 2014, when President Obama expanded the Pacific Remote Island Marine
National Monument through Executive Order 12962, he amended the details of the EO by adding EO 13474, which allows for recreational fishing and acknowledges that recreational fishing is a sustainable use of a public resource.
Declaring
national monuments is a very important component of his plan for "audacious" executive action.
The repeal of implied authority, however, did not affect the executive's power to proclaim
national monuments pursuant to statute.
Q & A with Cynthia Light Brown, author of
National Monuments, National Wonders