President Trump has signed an executive order calling for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review national monuments bigger than 100,000 acres, which were created since 1996.
In his order, the president says former presidents abused the power they have under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Among the monuments subject to the review are Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.
Both are in Utah, and each designation was controversial with some local groups.
Among the Arizona national monuments included in the review: Vermillion Cliffs and Ironwood Forest National Monuments. With me to talk about this is Randi Spivak. She runs the Public Lands Program at the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
And in a written statement, the chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, Republican Rob Bishop of Utah, says, in part, that the executive order “sends the powerful message that communities will no longer take a back seat to out-of-state special interest groups.”
He goes on to say that he “applauds the Trump administration’s clear commitment to do what past administrations refused to do, actually talk to real people who live in the area. This executive order is not the end of the story, we will work the Trump administration and our communities to get this right.”
