*#Conservatives* in Western states especially have long seen the president’s power to unilaterally set aside land as an example of federal overreach, w/many viewing it as a burdensome restriction on #mining & #drilling.
…During his confirmation hearing, Interior Secretary #DougBurgum said the #AntiquitiesAct is meant only for small, “Indiana Jones-type archeological” sites.
Signed into #law by President Theodore Roosevelt, the #AntiquitiesAct of 1906 gives presidents vast powers to #protect #lands & #waters through the creation of #NationalMonuments. But the law is quiet on whether presidents can remove designations set by their predecessors.
The Bureau of Land Management administers ~17k square miles of national monuments in the West….
The push would spark an intense #legal fight over the right of a president to grant sweeping #lands #protections under the 1906 #AntiquitiesAct — & take them away. In his 1st term, #Trump became the 1st president in more than half a century to modify existing #NationalMonuments when he drastically shrank the boundaries of Utah’s Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante—only for Pres Joe #Biden
to reverse the cuts.
#PublicLands #conservation #wildlife #FossilFuels #ClimateChange #Environment #law
Full text and map of two new national monuments via the Federal Register:
Chuckwalla National Monument
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-17/pdf/2025-01441.pdf
Sáttítla Highlands National Monument
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-01-17/pdf/2025-01443.pdf
Both monuments were established under the authority of the Antiquities Act. Chuckwalla National Monument will be managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Sáttítla Highlands National Monument will be managed by the U.S. Forest Service #antiquitiesact #nationalmonument #publiclands #california #usfs #forestservice #geology #proclamation #federalregister #map #maps
Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument established via the Antiquities Act. Chuckwalla National Monument will be managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Sáttítla Highlands National Monument will be managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Learn more about the new national monuments at https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2025/01/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-establishes-chuckwalla-and-sattitla-highlands-national-monuments-in-california/ and https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-celebrates-president-bidens-designation-chuckwalla-national and https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/01/07/usda-celebrates-president-bidens-sattitla-highlands-monument-designation and #antiquitiesact #nationalmonument #publiclands #california #blm #usfs #forestservice #geology #proclamation
Utah can't handle the truth: Presidents can (and must!) designate national monuments.
"On Monday, Utah filed its intent to appeal the ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, the logical next step in the case. If the court doesn’t deliver a ruling Cox and other leaders want, then it could be further appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court."
#AntiquitiesAct #BearsEars #GrandStaircase #NationalMonuments #ShashJaa #UtahPols
