Protecting public lands, including national monuments, is a cornerstone value of America’s conservationist ethos. There’s inherent value in preserving artifacts and sacred landscapes for the public’s enjoyment. Unfortunately, environmentalists and their allies in Washington are weaponizing these designations to further restrict public access.
In October, President Joe Biden announced an executive order restoring two national monuments in Utah — Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante — to their pre-2016 size. In 2017, Ryan Zinke, then-President Donald Trump’s first interior secretary, after conducting a review, recommended significantly downsizing the two areas to give more access and management power to the locals who care. This was a good decision, based on a lot of local input. But today it’s been reversed, with both monuments bloated to more than 1 million acres each.
The Antiquities Act of 1906, a seminal law, stipulates that presidents can establish monuments from existing public lands that “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” It’s hard to see how seizing control of millions of acres of land is in keeping with the spirit of restraint embedded in the law.
While many environmentalists are heralding Biden’s land grab as a win, this move could potentially undermine true conservation efforts going forward. Designating large tracts of land without any given parameters is not always in the best interest of safeguarding artifacts and fragile naturescapes.