The landscape is varied in the southern portion of Bears Ears National Monument.
Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Trump administration will recommend modifying several national monuments across the country, a controversial decision that stops short of the all-out assault on public lands that many conservationists had feared.
The recommendations from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are set to be delivered to President Trump on Thursday. Though the Department of the Interior did not respond to BuzzFeed News' repeated requests for comment, the Associated Press reported Thursday morning that Zinke would recommend changes to a "handful" of monuments.
Zinke will not recommend eliminating any monuments — a worst case scenario for many conservationists — and none will be turned over to state ownership, he told the AP.
It was not immediately clear which monuments were targeted for modification.
The expected recommendations are part of a review of 27 national monuments that President Trump ordered in April. The review, which Zinke was tasked with carrying out, was meant to determine if large national monuments from the last two decades had been created in accordance with the law.
During the review, Zinke recommended no changes to half a dozen monuments that together cover more than 2.6 million acres. Those decisions hinted that the Trump administration might take a moderate position on public lands and the West.
But Zinke also recommended shrinking Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah early in the review. Obama designated the 1.3-million-acre area in December, but faced pushback from local lawmakers, ranchers, and conservatives.
Trump at a rally in Huntington, West Virginia, on Aug. 3.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
The varying recommendations made the monument review a closely watched indicator of Trump's attitude about regulation and public land — which some would like to tap for possible mining and drilling. And Trump himself seemed to suggest the review was meant to scale back the work of his predecessors when he said in April that it would "end another egregious abuse of federal power and to give that power back to the states and to the people where it belongs."
At issue is the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law that gives presidents the power to turn existing public land into a national monument with the stroke of a pen. The presidential decision means an area becomes a park-like preserve with a new set of federal protections. Presidents have unilateral authority to use the Antiquities Act and don't have to go through Congress, as is required to create a national park.
However, that unilateral authority has made the Antiquities Act controversial; critics believe it gives presidents too much power and imposes unfair regulations on rural communities.
Many conservatives saw Trump and Zinke as a potential opportunity to scale back the Antiquities Act, though after his recommendation to shrink Bears Ears — a recommendation that was a disappointment to Republicans who wanted the monument completely rescinded — he called the law "nothing short of an American success."
The Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona.
Brian Witte / AP
Nevertheless, the West generally and Utah in particular remains a hotbed of angst with the federal government and the Antiquities Act. Utah lawmakers have also suggested various methods for reigning in presidential authority to create monuments.
Meanwhile many conservationists, Native American tribes, and some lawmakers have looked to the Antiquities Act as a way to quickly preserve fragile landscapes and ecosystems, and have sharply criticized Trump's review.
After Zinke recommended shrinking Bears Ears National Monument, Native American organization Utah Diné Bikeyah slammed the secretary for not spending enough time with tribal representatives.
"The Secretary failed to take the time to listen to the very people who know best what is at stake at Bears Ears and ignored overwhelming support in Utah for the monument," it said in a statement to BuzzFeed News.
As the review has drawn to a close, criticism has intensified.
This week, Arizona Democrat Rep. Raúl Grijalva blasted the review for suffering "from a nearly complete lack of public transparency."
Environmental groups, outdoor clothing, religions leaders, and tribes have all recently come out in support of keeping the monuments unmodified. Some have staged rallies, aired TV commercials, and fired off a barrage of pro-monument statements. The homepage of outdoor clothier Patagonia, which has lobbied heavily in favor of the monuments, currently displays a space on its website to "speak up for public lands" more prominently than any of the company's actual products.
Patagonia / Via patagonia.com
In many cases, monument supporters also spent recent days and weeks gearing up for a legal battle. In May, for example, Eric Descheenie — a member of the Navajo Nation and the Arizona House of Representatives — told BuzzFeed News the "tribes stand ready to immediately file a lawsuit."
By Wednesday, a day before the results were due, the National Resources Defense Council had already filed a lawsuit to obtain documents on Zinke's travel during the review.
Here is an interactive map of all the monuments reviewed.
LINK: Trump Is Ordering A Review Of All National Monuments Created In The Past Two Decades
LINK: Trump's Interior Secretary Recommends Shrinking Obama's Controversial National Monument
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2wJysqv
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