Last Wednesday, Trump signed another executive order, this one looking into whether or not the 1906 Antiquities Act has been followed in accordance with the law:
Most importantly, as Secretary Zinke pointed out at the signing ceremony, there is reason to question whether the law has been followed at all in recent designations of national monuments. That’s because the 1906 act restricted the president’s power to designate a monument by noting that reservations of land were not to exceed “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
That was applied in the case of Pompeys Pillar in Montana, a rock formation that was a landmark both to native tribes and to white settlers and explorers such as Lewis and Clark. It is worthy of preservation, and President Clinton, faithful to the intent of the Antiquities Act, set aside only 51 acres of land to preserve the landmark in the Pompeys Pillar National Monument.
By contrast, the Bear Ears National Monument encompasses 1.35 million acres of land in Utah, purportedly to protect two mesas considered sacred by area Indian tribes. That seems a bit like overkill, and these are the sorts of things that Zinke has been tasked with examining. Such large swaths are ripe for closer inspection, even though preservationist groups are outraged; they get outraged over just about everything, and howl like banshees.
In Oregon alone, only 2% of the land is developed; the feds own 52% of lands in the state, while much of the rest is owned by various other government entities. It may be time to look into governmental overreach in this regard.
