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Trump Orders Largest National Monument Reduction In U.S. History
While in Utah on last Monday, Trump announced his administration, at the recommendation of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, will dramatically shrink the size of the state's two national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Trump's orders mark the largest reversal of national monument protections in U.S. history.
The Bears Ears National Monument will go from roughly 1.3 million acres to roughly 228,000 — only about 15 percent of its original size. And Grand Staircase will be diminished by roughly half, from its nearly 1.9 million acres to about 1 million.
....Monday's announcement is.... the latest example of the U.S. government breaking promises with Native Americans and eroding environmental protections.
For months, [Native American tribal leaders] have passionately campaigned to preserve the national monument designations — and now, upon hearing Trump's proclamations, they are promising to sue.
The change has already been challenged in court by conservation groups and retailer Patagonia has announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
The Navajo Nation isn't the only group to announce its intention to sue the Trump administration over his proclamations. Conservationists have also voiced their objections — and their plans to bring those objections to court.
By late [last] Monday, 10 conservation groups had filed a lawsuit, alleging that Trump's action was "unlawful" and an abuse of his authority. The suit argues that the law "authorizes Presidents to create a national monument; it does not authorize Presidents to abolish them either in whole or in part, as President Trump's action attempts to do."
The push to shrink national monuments comes from the Trump administration’s intent to open up federally-protected land to oil, gas, and mining activities.
As Mother Jones reported in August: Conservationists predict Trump intends to shrink some existing monuments to open up lands for new mining and drilling operations, a potential move that Friends of the Earth’s Ben Schreiber described as a “blatant handouts to the oil and gas industry.” Any such land would still be federally managed, but losing monument status would strip it of national park-like protections, which forbid new leases for grazing, oil, gas, and mining.