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Jim: jdipeso@rep.org
(253) 740-2066 / 2010
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Antiquities Act in the Crosshairs
Again
March 12, 2010
There
they go again. Western lawmakers who call themselves conservative but
put conservation far down on their priority lists are trying to weaken
the Antiquities Act.
The law, passed by a Republican Congress in 1906 and signed into law by
Theodore Roosevelt, has been used by presidents from both parties to
protect spectacular natural and historical treasures on federal lands
by designating them as national monuments.
The Grand Canyon, Devils Tower, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, and
Carlsbad Caverns are among the more than 100 special places protected
as a
result of the Antiquities Act, one of the most effective conservation
statutes on the books.
Most recently, George W. Bush put the law to spectacular use by
including more than 200 million acres of federally managed Pacific
islands and territorial waters in four monuments in order to protect
their wildlife, archaeological resources, and geological formations.
When word got around recently that the Interior Department has been
talking
over possible monument designations in the West, ideologues leaped into
action, dusting off hackneyed, false slogans about federal land grabs
and introducing legislation to curb presidential powers granted by the
Antiquities Act.
Montana Congressman Dennis Rehberg introduced a bill requiring
congressional approval of presidentially proclaimed monuments in his
state. Similar bills were introduced for Utah, Colorado, Nevada, and
California.
Under the Antiquities Act, national monuments can only be proclaimed on
federal land. How the federal government can grab land already under
its authority is not made clear by the complainers.
What is clear is that they want federal lands to be cut, mined, and
drilled for raw commodities, and the sooner the better. For these
"conservatives," consumption is king and conservation is a distant
also-ran.
If enacted, the bills they’ve proposed would match a 1950 law requiring
congressional approval of new or expanded monuments in Wyoming.
That law was passed after a battle royal over Jackson Hole National
Monument. Local opposition to the monument had been fierce ever since
Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed it in 1943. The Wyoming carve-out from
the Antiquities Act was part of the deal for folding the monument into
Grand Teton National Park.
Times have changed. Setting aside special places isn’t so bad once
people calm down and think through what protected lands can do for
their communities. Today, Wyoming proudly features the Tetons on its
auto license plates.
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