Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona
Bob Wick, Bureau of Land Management / Via Flickr: mypubliclands
The Trump administration has added a new national monument to its growing list of remote areas it won't try to rescind or modify — suggesting the administration may take a moderate approach to western lands, and fueling hopes among conservationists that a feared assault against public wild space isn't on the horizon.
On Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced that he would not recommend any changes to the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona. Zinke said in a statement that the rugged, desert area "has some of the most pristine and undeformed geological formations in North America."
The recommendation was part of an ongoing review of 27 national monuments that President Trump ordered in April to determine if the monuments should be altered or even nullified. The move came after significant push back in some rural areas to monuments former President Obama designated in the waning days of his presidency.
At the time he ordered the review, Trump echoed a number of western lawmakers, calling it "another egregious abuse of federal power." But conservationists responded with dismay, saying they feared Trump was preparing to strip vast wilderness areas of environmental protections while opening it up for oil drilling and coal mining.
What has actually played out over the last four months, however, has been something more moderate. Though the review isn't set to wrap up until later this month, Zinke has already announced that he won't recommend changes to five national monuments: Grand Canyon-Parashant in Arizona; Upper Missouri River Breaks in Montana; Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado; Craters of the Moon in Idaho; and Hanford Reach in Washington.
Visitors in the lava field at Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.
Wolfgang Kaehler / Getty Images
Though more than 20 monuments are still under review, the five Zinke has already cleared represent roughly 2.5 million acres of Western land. And together, they suggest that at the very least the Trump administration isn't readying an all-out war against public land and wilderness space.
The latest announcement removing Grand Canyon-Parashant from review is also particularly significant because at more than 1 million acres, it's the third largest monument Zinke was considering for changes. Only Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both in Utah, are bigger. Those monuments are so controversial — opponents argue the monuments have a negative impact on the local economy — they're widely seen as having sparked the review in the first place.
This isn't to say the Trump administration has turned into a conservationist's dream come true. It has chipped away at a number of environmental regulations and Zinke himself has overseen aspects of that process, with the Interior Department working to advance Trump's agenda for more domestic energy production.
Even more notable, at least to those watching public lands, was Zinke's recommendation in June to shrink Bears Ears National Monument, which Obama created amid great controversy in December.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Utah lawmakers explore Bears Ears on May 8.
Michelle Price / AP
But even that recommendation was a far cry from more drastic steps — namely abolishing it altogether — that many had anticipated. After Obama designated Bears Ears, Republican lawmakers including Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Rob Bishop, as well as local leaders, asked Trump to rescind the monument. Reversing a designation is legally uncharted territory and conservation groups prepared lawsuits in response, but people on both sides seemed to think there was a real possibility that Trump would try to completely unravel Bears Ears National Monument. That didn't happen.
These less-extreme-than-anticipated moves haven't necessarily won the Trump administration friends among members of the conservation community, many of whom argued that the review shouldn't be happening in the first place.
"The secretary is charged with the stewardship of our monuments and public lands," said Tim Peterson, a program director at wild land advocacy group the Grand Canyon Trust. "The drip of announcing one at a time to be free from the threat of alteration is like someone who is responsible for doing the dishes announcing that they will not break at least four of the 27 dishes they are supposed to wash."
Peterson's sentiment was echoed by many who spoke with BuzzFeed News Friday, including Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, who criticized the review process for being "secretive and shadowy."
"I’m glad that the Grand Canyon is off the list of review" he added. "But I don't feel any of the monuments listed should be under review. Period."
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
US National Parks Service / Via nps.gov
Matthew Gross, a spokesman for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, went even further, insisting the review is "unnecessary, arbitrary, and a total sham."
"This is not a merit-based review," Gross said in an email. "The only guiding principle seems to be Secretary Zinke wetting a finger to the political winds before flipping a coin."
Still, conservationists have welcomed the news that Grand Canyon-Parashant and other monuments are no longer facing potential removal.
Dan Hartinger, with The Wilderness Society, said the Trump administration seems to "understand that these announcements are good news," adding that Zinke's decisions could ended up defining his legacy.
Hartinger and others expressed a cautious hope that the remaining monuments will emerge from the review without changes.
"I’d say we are hopeful," he added, "but concerned."
LINK: Trump's Interior Secretary Recommends Shrinking Obama's Controversial National Monument
LINK: Obama Creates Two More National Monuments, And A Possible Land War
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2hwYfwg
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