Trump Orders Review Of Bears Ears, Other National Monument Designations

In a move that could eventually lead to national monuments losing their designation, President Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday directing the Interior Secretary to review all national monuments designated by his three predecessors over the past 21 years.

That review - which will include Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante - will examine whether presidents have overstepped the intentions of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows them to set aside federal lands without seeking congressional approval.

Trump said that the act "does not give the federal government unlimited power to lock up" millions of acres of land and water.

While the review could mean monuments eventually, being cut in size or losing their designation altogether, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke tried to strike a reassuring tone.

He said the order "does not remove any monuments" or weaken any environmental protections. At the same time, Zinke said that "somewhere along the line, the act has become a tool of political advocacy."

The move comes on the heels of a campaign by federal and state officials in Utah to get the Bears Ears designation scaled back.

President Obama designated the 1.35 million acres of land in southern Utah as Bears Ears in National Monument.

Trump singled out Obama's designation of Bears Ears as an "egregious use of power" and an "abuse of the monuments designation," and said that it's time to end the abusive practice.

"It's gotten worse and worse and worse. This should never have happened," he said. "Now we're going to free it up."
"We're returning power back to the people."Today we're putting the states back in charge."

While the Bears Ears move had been praised by conservationists and the tribal nations with ties to the area, it was opposed by many officials who said the designation was too broad.

"When President Obama designated the Bears Ears monument in December, he did so ignoring the voices of Utah leaders who were united in opposition, and even more importantly, ignoring the voices of the local Utahns most affected by this massive land grab,” Utah's senior senator, Orrin Hatch said last week.

Meanwhile, the coalition of five Tribes that make up the Bears Ears Commission - the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe - which was established by the presidential proclamation are still waiting for a response from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to an offer they made last month to meet.

"Our people were forcibly removed from the Bears Ears area in the mid-1800s but we have always continued to return to this cultural landscape for ceremonies, hunting, gathering of herbs and medicines, and other purposes," the commissioners wrote in March. "We have heard reports that the Trump Administration may be considering actions to reduce the size of the monument or to eliminate it entirely

"From our standpoint, any such actions would be absolute tragedies in terms of impacts on our people today and the eternal values and traditions of our many generations of ancestors."

It's not clear that - even if the Interior Secretary suggests scaling back Bears Ears or another monument - the president would have the authority to do so.

In 1938, when Franklin Roosevelt was considering abolishing Castle-Pinckney National Monument, which had been established by Calvin Coolidge, his attorney general wrote he didn't have the authority to do so.

"The Executive can no more destroy his own authorized work, without some other legislative sanction, than any other person can," Homer Cummings wrote.

Photo Josh Ewing, courtesy Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition.