National monuments could lose designation

    President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order mandating the review of a number of national monuments -- which could possibly take protections away from those lands. Trump characterized the move as ending an "egregious abuse of federal power."
    As a result, the Department of the Interior will review the status of more than two dozen land and ocean monuments. During the review, the public will be able to comment on whether monument status is appropriate.
    Some monuments cover land of historic relevance -- prominently, Bears Ears in Utah.
     "The designation of the Bears Ears National Monument was a long overdue moment in the protection of our cultural and spiritual heritage," said a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke from the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, a partnership of the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute and Zuni tribal governments. "Our tribal governments have made it clear that any change to the monument would undermine the efforts of so many, and would disrespect our deep and enduring connections to this place."
      These are the land monuments under review:

• Basin and Range, 703,585 acres in Nevada: Designated a monument in 2015, the stretch of land “supported prehistoric Native Americans for thousands of years, from Paleoindian to historic times,” according to the website for the nonprofit group, Friends of Basin and Range National Monument. The region “preserves slices of prehistoric and pioneer life, providing a window to our past.”

• Bears Ears, 1,353,000 acres in Utah: Designated in 2016, this monument is getting most of the press attention. Leaders of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition have a website detailing their effort to protect the tribal lands. The land has been home to various tribes for countless generations, the website says. “The national monument has taken more than 80 years to designate.” It has more than 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites.

• Berryessa Snow Mountain, 330,780 acres in California: Designated in 2015, this recreational area features 5,000-year-old archaeological sites and is recognized as an archaeological district on the National Register of Historic Places, according a website kept by nonprofit groups supporting the monument.

• Canyons of the Ancients, 175,160 acres in southwest Colorado: This land, designated a monument in 2000, includes remnants of the “Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) people: cliff dwellings, villages, great kivas, shrines, petroglyphs and other ancient artifacts,” according to The Conservation Fund website. The monument has more than 6,000 recorded archaeological sites, and is “the most archeologically dense area in the United States,” the fund website says.

• Carrizo Plain, 204,107 acres in California’s Central Valley: Designated a monument in 2001, this land is a remnant of vast grassland where antelope and elk grazed, according to the California Bureau of Land Management website. Significant areas include prehistoric Native American campsites dating back 10,000 years and 19th century homesteads.

• Cascade Siskiyou, 100,000 acres in Oregon: This land was designated a monument in 2000 and 2017. It includes Pilot Rock, the remnant of an ancient volcano. (See the website: Friends of the Cascade Siskiyou Monument.)

• Craters of the Moon, 737,525 acres in Idaho: This was established as a monument in 1924, and land was added in 2000. It is described by the National Park Service as “a vast ocean of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush.” President Calvin Coolidge was the first to declare it a national monument after a National Geographic magazine article captivated the public.

• Giant Sequoia, 327,760 acres in California: Established as a monument in 2000, the area protects 33 groves or grove complexes of giant sequoia trees, according to the Giant Sequoia National Monument Association, a group that supports responsible use of the land.

• Gold Butte, 296,937 acres in Nevada: President Barack Obama established this monument in 2016. His proclamation notes that the area has been a home to humans for at least 12,000 years. It also contains “an extraordinary variety of diverse and irreplaceable scientific, historic and prehistoric resources, including vital plant and wildlife habitat, significant geological formations, rare fossils, important sites from the history of Native Americans, and remnants of our Western mining and ranching heritage.”

• Grand Canyon-Parashant, 1,014,000 acres in Arizona: Declared a monument in 2000, the site includes petroglyphs left behind by native tribes, according to the National Park Service.

• Grand Staircase-Escalante, 1,700,000 acres in Utah: Declared a monument in 1996, the Grand Staircase-Escalante is known for colorful scenery. It is called the “staircase” for the “series of plateaus that descend from Bryce Canyon south toward the Grand Canyon, marked by vertical drops at the Pink Cliffs, Grey Cliffs, White Cliffs, Vermillion Cliffs and Chocolate Cliffs,” according to the Utah.com website.

• Hanford Reach, 194,450 acres in the state of Washington: This monument, designated in 2000, is filled with opportunities for wildlife encounters, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website.“Rare is a trip along the river that doesn't produce mule deer, coyotes, bald eagles, great blue herons, or white pelicans,” the website says. Plutonium reactors along the river are being dismantled. (One of them fueled “Fat Man,” an atomic bomb dropped on Japan in 1945.)

• Ironwood Forest, 128,917 acres in Arizona: Designated a monument in 2000, this stunning forest is marked by dramatic mountain vistas and a population of Desert Bighorn Sheep. Humans have inhabited the area for 5,000 years, according to the website for Friends of Ironwood Forest.

• Mojave Trails, 1,600,000 acres in California:  Designated as a national monument in 2016, it includes a portion of California's largest cactus garden, an area researched for the effects of volcanism on evolution, and the Marble Mountains Fossil Beds, with 550 million-year-old fossils,  according the Wildlife Conservancy’s website.

• Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, 496,330 acres in New Mexico: Designated a national monument in 2014, the expanse of land is rich in history. Just to name a few examples: training sites for the Apollo space mission, the Butterfield Stagecoach Trail, Billy the Kid’s Outlaw Rock, Geronimo’s Cave, World War II aerial targets and thousands of Native American petroglyphs and pictographs, according to the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance website.

• Rio Grande del Norte, 242,555 acres in New Mexico: Designated a national monument in 2013, this area has been used by humans intermittently for thousands of years, according to a proclamation on the monument signed by Obama. “The images carved into the gorge's dark basalt cliffs and the artifacts scattered across the forested slopes of the volcanic cones bear ample testimony to the human use of the area,” the proclamation says.

• Sand to Snow, 154,000 acres in California: Designated a national monument in 2016, Sand to Snow is known for its diversity. But it is also “filled with the stories of ancient peoples, soaring mountain peaks, critical wildlife corridors and rich biological diversity,” according to the U.S. Forest Service website.

• San Gabriel Mountains, 346,177 acres in California: Designated a national monument in 2014, the area has “rock art that provides a glimpse into ancient civilizations, an observatory that brought the world the cosmos, and thousands of miles of streams, hiking trails and other outdoor recreation opportunities,” according to the U.S. Forest Service website.

• Sonoran Desert, 486,149 acres in Arizona: This area was designated a national monument in 2001. It is described by the National Park Service as “the most complex desert in North America. It has great diversity in geological structures as well as the number and variety of plants and animals.”

• Upper Missouri River Breaks, 377,346 acres in Montana: Declared a national monument in 2001, the area “is covered with sedimentary rocks deposited in shallow seas that covered central and eastern Montana during the Cretaceous period,” according to the Visit Montana website. “Many of the biological objects described in Lewis' and Clarks' journals continue to make the monument their home."

• Vermilion Cliffs, 279,568 acres in Arizona: Designated a national monument in 2000, this land was crossed by hunters and gatherers 12,000 or more years ago, according to the group, Public Lands.org. It contains, "high densities of Anasazi (prehistoric Native Americans) sites including remnants of large and small villages, trails, granaries, burials, and camps."

• Katahdin Woods and Waters, 87,563 acres in Maine: The government is reviewing the monument's designation to determine whether there was adequate public outreach. The area offers views of Mount Katahdin and is known as a recreation area.

      The marine national monuments under review include:

• Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean.

• Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Atlantic Ocean.

• Pacific remote islands, Pacific Ocean.

• Papahanaumokuakea, Hawaii.

• Rose Atoll, American Samoa.

     Related:

     What are executive orders?

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