POLITICS
Use today’s MapMaker Interactive map to explore your public lands under review.
Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit, including today’s MapMaker Interactive map.
Discussion Ideas
- President Donald Trump has asked Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review the status of at least 20 national monuments. What are national monuments?
- U.S. national monuments are federally protected areas that can be created from any land already owned or controlled by the federal government. Most national monuments are created by presidents by authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906.
- According to the New York Times, “[t]he law was enacted to prevent looting of Indian artifacts from archaeological sites. The act has mostly been used since then by presidents to turn public land into national monuments protected forever from commercial development or future mineral exploitation.”
- National monuments are managed by many different federal departments and agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Fish & Wildlife Service, the Department of the Interior, and the Forest Service.
- Devils Tower, Wyoming, was the first national monument. Other familiar national monuments include Fort McHenry, Maryland; Mount St. Helens, Washington; the Statue of Liberty, New York; and the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, Hawaii—which includes Pearl Harbor.
- U.S. national monuments are federally protected areas that can be created from any land already owned or controlled by the federal government. Most national monuments are created by presidents by authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906.
- Who supports a reconsideration of these national monuments?
- President Trump, obviously, who calls their designation a “massive federal land grab.”
- “Conservative lawmakers have long argued that the federal government, which owns almost half the land in 11 western states in the continental United States, should turn control of much of it over to the states—or sell off parcels for commercial development and the allure of new jobs.”
- Many businesses may pursue leases to federal land for extractive activities: logging, drilling, mining, fishing. Ranchers may pursue leases to use the land for cattle grazing.
- Who opposes a reconsideration of these national monuments?
- Conservationists are concerned about possible development on historically or environmentally sensitive land.
- Native American nations were initially involved in the designation and management of these areas. One critic says “reducing these monuments or changing them ‘would have a chilling effect on tribal-federal relations when it comes to protecting landscapes.’”
- According to a recent poll cited by the New York Times, a whopping “93% of respondents said that historical sites, public lands and national parks should be protected for current and future generations.”
- Can the president rescind national monument status?
- Probably not, but he can make them smaller. “Most legal scholars and historians agree that the Antiquities Act does not give the president the authority to revoke previous national monument designations, but a president can change the boundaries of a national monument.”
TEACHERS TOOLKIT
Nat Geo: What You Need to Know About Trump’s National Monument Rethink
Nat Geo: What National Monuments Are Being Reviewed? map
New York Times: What Is the Antiquities Act and Why Does President Trump Want to Change It?
Los Angeles Times: Here are the national monuments being reconsidered under Trump
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