Two federal agencies recently approved the resource management plan for Bears Ears National Monument, even as one freshman lawmaker from Utah wants to strip presidential authority to create monuments.
“Congress, not the executive branch, has jurisdiction to make decisions on public land,” said Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah. “Congress trusted presidents with a narrow authority to declare national monuments in the Antiquities Act. Unfortunately, presidents have continued to abuse that narrow authority to designate millions of acres of land in Utah and across the West without proper congressional oversight. My bill aims to rebalance the powers between Congress and the executive branch and restore transparency and accountability to these designations.”
The plan approved for Bears Ears came from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, which controls the 1.35 million acres set aside the land for protection of cultural artifacts in southeast Utah.
“Bears Ears National Monument encompasses vast and diverse objects of historical and scientific interest. We’re honored to care for this landscape alongside Tribal Nations, the Bears Ears Commission, the monument advisory committee, the USDA Forest Service, state and local governments, neighboring communities, other partners and stakeholders, and the public,” said acting BLM Utah State Director Matt Preston. “This new plan will allow anyone who has a connection to the monument to enjoy the landscape while ensuring respect for the monument and the unique values it embodies.”
But Maloy, along with Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., introduced their legislation Thursday to reform the Antiquities Act of 1906. The legislation, called the Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act, would strip presidential authority to unilaterally designate national monuments and give that authority to Congress by striking a section from the act granting that executive power.
“My home state of Nevada, along with other Western states, has long been burned by executive actions on public lands and monument designations that bypass input from Congress and local governments. I am a firm believer that the best lands policy is generated by the local communities who actually live off of these lands, not Washington bureaucrats,” said Amodei.
“This legislation overturns years of a one-sided approach on major land management decisions and ensures Western communities are given a seat at the table for any future monument designations.”
But Barbara Van Alstine, forest supervisor of the Manti-La Sal National Forest, said the Bears Ears plan comes in consultation with tribes and local communities with an eye toward protecting the landscape and its cultural resources.
“As a forest (district), we are humbled to have the distinct privilege of supporting the informed management of Bears Ears National Monument through this resource management plan to encourage visitors, land stewards, and future generations to enjoy the area while appreciating the cultural significance of the landscape.”
The presidential proclamation establishing the monument called for tribal co-stewardship of the monument and established the Bears Ears Commission, comprised of representatives from five tribes whose ancestral homelands are in part encompassed by the monument. The approved plan emphasizes resource protection.
Within the approved plan, other uses are protected, including cattle grazing, recreation and traditional gathering of firewood and plants.
The Western Watersheds Project expressed its disappointment that the plan leaves grazing untouched. The group said the plan could have called for conducting land health surveys on grazing allotments within a 10-year time frame. Instead, the group said, the plan only requires land health evaluations for a handful of allotments, leaving the rest without timely evaluations.
The Center for Western Priorities blasted Maloy’s legislation.
“The presidential power to protect public lands is widely supported by Western voters, who know that Congress is too gridlocked to get the job done,” said deputy director Aaron Weiss: “The Antiquities Act is one of the best tools we have to preserve America’s natural resources. Anyone who signs on to Rep. Maloy’s bill will unleash the ire of America’s hunters, anglers, the outdoor industry, and Tribal nations.”
The designations of both the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, however, have sparked the ire of many local officials in the affected counties as well as Utah’s GOP delegation.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument with pen and paper at a table in neighboring Arizona. The designation came as a harsh surprise to Utah political leaders who asserted they were blindsided by the move.
Two decades later, after a visit by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, the Bears Ears Monument was designated at 1.35 million acres by President Barack Obama.
Following a visit by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on behalf of the Trump administration, both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase were reduced in size in 2017.
Under President Joe Biden’s direction, a third Interior secretary, Deb Haaland, revisited both monuments and restored them to their original size.
If Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Interior, Doug Burgum gets confirmed, will yet another Interior secretary visit the monuments? It remains to be seen, but he’s already received an invitation to come to Utah by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who heads up the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.