(L)Channel Islands National Monument. (R):Bears Ears National Monument Photos:(L)National Park Service//(R)The Sierra Club
According to lawyers for the current administration, President Trump has the authority to abolish national monuments that were created to preserve historic and archaeological sites across the United States.
As of this writing, there are 138 national monuments, including places like Devils Tower, Wyoming, Bears Ears, Utah, the California Coastal National Monument, Giant Sequoia in the Sequoia National Forest, and the Parashant National Monument in the Grand Canyon. The five largest National monuments are all oceanic marine sites that protect waters and submerged lands where commercial fishing isn’t allowed.
The idea of creating national monuments stemmed from the Antiquities Act of 1906, which lets the president protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest” from harm that might arise from development or mining, drilling, and logging.
In 1938, a legal determination was made that monuments created by prior presidents using the Antiquities Act can’t be revoked, but a Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday says that “presidents can cancel monument designations if protections aren’t warranted.”
According to the Associated Press, President Trump is weighing the possibility of revoking national monuments’ protections as part of his administration’s push to expand U.S. energy production.
The finding also comes as the Interior Department under Trump weighs changes to monuments across the nation. “[Trump’s] Justice Department is attempting to clear a path to erase national monuments,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
In Trump’s first term as president, he reduced the sizes of both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, as well as lifting restrictions on fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off the coast of New England.
Two of the monuments pointed to in the Justice Department opinion were created by Biden in the waning months of his term: Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California.
