U.S. Department of Justice says Trump can cancel national monuments that protect landscapes
Billings, Mont. (AP) – Attorneys for President Donald Trump administration say he has the right to abolish national monuments designed to protect historical and archaeological sites across vast landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessors at the request of Native American tribes.
The Justice Department’s legal opinion issued a 1938 decision Tuesday that monuments previously created by the president under the Antiquities Act cannot be revoked. The department said the president could cancel the name of the monument without guarantees.
The discovery comes as the Trump-led Interior Department weighs changes in the national monument, part of the administration’s push to expand U.S. energy production.
“His Justice Department is trying to clear the paths that erase the state’s monuments,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico state rank for the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
Trump reduced the size of bear ears and the large staircase of Utah in his first term, calling them “huge land grabs.” He also lifted fishing restrictions within the sprawling marine monuments off the New England coast.
Former President Joe Biden reversed the move and restored the monument.
Biden designated two monuments in the last few days of his office that were selected from the newly issued Justice Department opinion: the Chakvara National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and the Satitra Highland National Monument in northern Northern California.
The Democratic declaration on the monument banned oil and gas drilling and mined on the 624,000 acres (2,400 square miles of instrumentation) Chuckwalla site, and about 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) of the Sáttítitla Highland site.
Chuckwalla has natural wonders, including painted canyons of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and is a plant and animal of rare species such as Desert Bighorn Sheep and Chuckwalla Lizard. Satra Heights include The home of our ancestors Pitt River Tribe and Modoc.
In addition to the three presidents, the Antiquities Act of 1906 was used to protect unique landscape and cultural resources. About half of the national parks in the United States are designated as monuments first.
But critics of the monument titles led by Biden and Obama say the protective border extends too far and hinders the mining of critical minerals.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit wrote in the Trump administration’s perspective that Biden’s conservation of Chuckwalla and Sattítla Highlands is part of a Democratic attempt to create an environmental legacy for itself, including more hiking, bikes, camps or Hunter’s place.
“Events like this are totally expected in the park, but they are completely unrelated to (if not completely incompatible) conservation or historical monuments,” Petit wrote.
Trump lifted a commercial fishing ban in April inside the Pacific Ocean Monument created under former President Barack Obama.
Environmental groups said Tuesday’s Justice Department opinion did not give him the power to narrow the monument at will.
“Americans overwhelmingly support our public lands and oppose seeing them being demolished or destroyed,” said Axie Navas of the Wild Society.
Biden has built 10 new monuments, including the site of the 1908 game riots in Springfield, Illinois, and another at a Native American site near the Grand Canyon.
According to the National Park Service database, the president has issued more than a dozen declarations since 1912, which have reduced monuments.
Dwight Eisenhower is most active in eliminating the announcement of his predecessor as he cut six monuments, including the Arch of Utah, the Great Dunes of Colorado and the Glacier Bay of Alaska, which have since become national parks.
Trump’s move to narrow down Utah monuments during his first term has been challenged by environmental groups that say preservation of cultural sites while preserving them, water supply and wildlife conservation measures.
Biden will reverse the reduction of the reduction before the case is resolved and is still waiting.
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after lobbying by educated and scientists, hoping to protect the site from individual robbery and accidental artifacts. This is the first law in the United States to establish legal protection for cultural and natural resources on historical or scientific interests on federal lands.
