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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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