Interior Department officials are analyzing the boundaries of national monuments in New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and California, the Washington Post reported. That includes the Organ Mountains-Desert Peak (N.M.), Bears Ears (Utah), Grand Staircase-Escalante (Utah), Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon (Ariz.), Ironwood Forest (Ariz.), and Chuckwalla (Calif.) national monuments.
These federally protected waters and lands represent ecological and cultural sites that Western communities and tribes have fought to protect, said Kate Groetzinger with the Center for Western Priorities, a nonpartisan conservation group.
“They are great recreation drivers,” Groetzinger said. “They really drive economic activity in really rural parts of the West that don't have a lot of other economic activity going on.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently said at the World Economy Summit in Washington, D.C. that national monuments are under review, including their “appropriate size.”
However, he added: “It’s not a top priority of the administration in terms of all the things we’ve got to face.”
Such a move would build on the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen America’s energy security. It has announced plans to fast-track oil, gas and mining projects, and make it easier to develop in areas protected by the Endangered Species Act.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
