tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/public-lands-34881/articlesPublic lands – The Conversation2024-02-15T13:32:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2164242024-02-15T13:32:45Z2024-02-15T13:32:45ZGold, silver and lithium mining on federal land doesn’t bring in any royalties to the US Treasury – because of an 1872 law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575104/original/file-20240212-17-qfzo4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5483%2C3655&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aerial view of the Pinto Valley copper mine, located on private and U.S. national forest lands in Gila County, Ariz.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-pinto-valley-copper-mine-in-gila-county-news-photo/1410152071">Wild Horizon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Congress opened U.S. public lands for mining in 1872, the nation was less than a century old. Miners used picks, shovels and pressurized water hoses to pry loose valuable minerals like gold and silver. </p>
<p>Today, mining is a high-technology industry, but it is still governed by the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-5337/pdf/COMPS-5337.pdf">Mining Law of 1872</a>. As was true 150 years ago, companies can mine valuable mineral deposits from federal lands without paying any royalties to the U.S. Treasury. </p>
<p>Even when lands that formerly were available for mining receive new protected status as national parks or monuments, the 1872 mining law <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/energyminerals/development-in-parks.htm">protects existing mining claims on those lands</a>. That’s why a company called Energy Fuels Inc. <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2024/01/10/a-uranium-mine-near-the-grand-canyon-is-operating-despite-opposition/72163283007/">just started mining uranium in January 2024</a> at a site in Arizona 10 miles from the Grand Canyon and inside a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/08/fact-sheet-president-biden-designates-baaj-nwaavjo-itah-kukveni-ancestral-footprints-of-the-grand-canyon-national-monument/">new national monument</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men wield shovels and wheelbarrows next to a small timbered opening in a hillside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575103/original/file-20240212-16-7p58kw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Gold prospectors mining at Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, circa 1885.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gold-prospectors-shovel-sand-and-gravel-into-a-rocker-box-a-news-photo/1478786322">Graphic House/Archive Photos via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Minerals like lithium, uranium and copper are essential for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-worried-about-its-critical-minerals-supply-chains-essential-for-electric-vehicles-wind-power-and-the-nations-defense-157465">shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy</a>, and for many other uses in our increasingly technological society. The Biden administration wants to produce these materials domestically, rather than relying on foreign sources – especially from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/combatting-child-labor-democratic-republic-congos-cobalt-industry-cotecco">child labor abuses in the mining industry persist</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Sam-Kalen-2146924596">natural resource and public land scholar</a>, I agree with many others who argue that the 1872 mining law is <a href="https://earthworks.org/releases/biden-administration-working-group-recommendations-offer-first-step-to-protect-communities-environment-from-destructive-mining/">archaic and overdue for an update</a>. It allows the modern mining industry to develop valuable resources on public lands without returning any value to the American taxpayer, and to mine in areas that have sensitive ecosystems or contain important cultural resources for Indigenous peoples.</p>
<h2>Royalty-free development</h2>
<p>Allowing citizens to enter, explore and ultimately develop claims on federal lands with valuable mineral deposits was part of a broad push to settle the West. Congress enacted the 1872 mining law just a decade after the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act">Homestead Act</a>, which gave settlers up to 160 acres of public land for a small claim fee if they lived on it and farmed it, and three years after the <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/may/completion-transcontinental-railroad">completion of the transcontinental railroad</a> in 1869.</p>
<p>Today, open federal public lands are managed by either the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/">U.S. Forest Service</a> or the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/">Bureau of Land Management</a>. In either case, they are considered available for hard rock mining. </p>
<p>Companies that want to develop <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/coal">coal</a>, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/about">oil, natural gas</a>, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/renewable-energy/strategy">geothermal energy and solar or wind power</a> on public lands sign leases and pay royalties in return for using these lands to generate private wealth. For example, the current royalty rate for oil and gas production on federal land is <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-takes-steps-modernize-oil-and-gas-leasing-public-lands-ensure-fair">16.67% of the market value</a> of these fuels.</p>
<p>Not so for mining companies, even if they extract precious metals like gold and silver. According to an Interior Department estimate, the value of gold, silver, copper, molybdenum, lead and zinc mined on federal lands in the West in 2019 was <a href="https://www.doi.gov/media/document/mriwg-report-final-508-pdf">approximately US$4.9 billion</a>. If the companies had paid royalties, they would have returned millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.</p>
<p>A miner who locates a valuable mineral deposit on public lands and complies with federal and state law enjoys a right to explore and then develop the land, and can even prevent others from doing so. There are two principal qualifying rules.</p>
<p>First, claims can only be located on open public lands that have not been withdrawn from use for other purposes, such as protecting cultural resources or wilderness areas. Second, the 1872 law only applies to valuable mineral deposits, which it defines as those on lands containing locatable minerals that a prudent person would develop because the minerals can be mined and marketed at a profit. </p>
<p>These materials may include precious minerals, such as gold and silver; metallic minerals, such as uranium, lead, copper or zinc; or nonmetallic minerals, such as some types of limestone, bentonite and asbestos. High-profile mining proposals today include <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/epa-proposes-lead-copper-limits-near-planned-arizona-mine">copper mines in Arizona</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/lithium-mine-tribes-climate-energy-lawsuit-nevada-7a65eee7d78d93a1e44e3f8e10445143">lithium mines in Nevada</a>.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uGcxc6jV8Go?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Native Americans have fought construction of a lithium mine at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, which they contend sits on their ancestral land. Environmentalists are divided over the project, which would supply material for advanced batteries.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Decades of debate</h2>
<p>Calls for reforming the 1872 law first surfaced in the late 19th century and have persisted ever since. </p>
<p>After all, the law transferred valuable public resources to private hands at virtually no cost, while saddling the public with the resulting environmental burdens, such as ponds <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/rced-91-145.pdf">contaminated with toxic cyanide</a>. Mining on public lands, especially prior to the 1970s, left <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105408">a multitude of contaminated zones</a> that federal agencies are still working to clean up at taxpayer expense. </p>
<p>Today, mining operations are subject to modern land management and environmental laws, such as the Clean Water Act. But these laws were not written specifically to address mining and do not fully cover issues such as <a href="https://earthworks.org/files/publications/FACTSHEET_Mining-industry-exploits-clean-water-act-loopholes.pdf">disposal of mine waste</a>. </p>
<p>University of California legal scholar <a href="https://expertfile.com/experts/john.leshy/john-leshy">John Leshy</a>, a former solicitor at the Interior Department and the nation’s premier mining law expert, forcefully described in his 1987 book, “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Mining-Law-A-Study-in-Perpetual-Motion/Leshy/p/book/9781138951877">The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion</a>,” how this statute languished for decades, widely understood as ill-suited to modern times yet eluding reform. Former University of Colorado law professor <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/law/2023/06/12/memoriam-charles-wilkinson-trailblazer-justice-earth-and-american-indian-law">Charles Wilkinson</a> called the law a “lord of yesterday” in his classic 1992 book, “<a href="https://islandpress.org/books/crossing-next-meridian">Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West</a>.” </p>
<p>Reform advocates support adopting the type of <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/citing-clean-energy-progressives-mount-mining-law-overhaul/">traditional leasing model</a> that is used for most other resources on public lands in the U.S. and elsewhere. As an example, for oil and gas production <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/leasing/general-leasing">on federal lands</a> and <a href="https://www.boem.gov/oil-gas-energy/leasing">offshore in federal waters</a>, agencies identify areas with development potential and hold competitive auctions to lease parcels for exploration and development.</p>
<p>Reformists also favor tighter environmental safeguards that would address issues such as <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Our-Work/Waters/Hardrock-Mining">management and disposal of mining wastes</a>. Finally, they argue that mining should be prohibited in areas that are ecologically sensitive or are <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/pathway-responsible-mining-indian-country">important to Indigenous peoples or tribal nations</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Water from a 2015 spill at the abandoned Gold King mine in southwest Colorado flows into a holding pond. The spill released 3 million gallons of water laced with toxic metals, contaminating rivers in three states and the Navajo Nation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NewMexicoMineSpillSettlementGrants/f4d3c34b13894facae77fc6ef413c45a/photo">AP Photo/Brennan Linsley</a></span>
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<p>In contrast, the mining industry and its supporters complain that <a href="https://www.nma.org/pdf/041508_mining_law.pdf">existing laws hinder mining activities</a>. In their view, the federal government applies the 1872 mining law in a way that forces companies to spend years securing necessary approvals. A 2015 report prepared for the mining industry estimated that the average time required to secure all permits for a large mine in the U.S. was <a href="https://nma.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/SNL_Permitting_Delay_Report-Online.pdf">seven to 10 years</a>, compared with two years in Canada and Australia.</p>
<p>The industry also contends that imposing a royalty requirement would make it hard for companies to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/12/climate/mining-federal-lands-metals.html">produce critical materials profitably</a>, although these companies currently <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/b-330854">pay royalties to 12 western states</a> for mining on state land.</p>
<p>In September 2023, the Interior Department <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-harris-administration-report-outlines-reforms-needed-promote-responsible-mining">released a 168-page report</a> making recommendations for improving mining on public lands. It calls for:</p>
<p>– Putting greater emphasis on environmental protection in mine permitting;</p>
<p>– Preventing mining in areas that are important to tribal nations and Indigenous peoples;</p>
<p>– Replacing the 1872 mining law with a more traditional leasing system that would charge royalties of 4% to 8%; and</p>
<p>– Charging mining companies a fee that would be used to help clean up abandoned mine sites, similar to a fee that <a href="https://revenuedata.doi.gov/how-revenue-works/aml-reclamation-program/">coal mining companies have paid since 1977</a>.</p>
<p>Bills are <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/1281">pending now</a> in Congress, introduced by <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/2925">legislators from Nevada</a>, a major mineral-producing state. These measures would retain the structure of the 1872 law while taking steps to streamline permitting for large-scale mining activities.</p>
<h2>Balancing critical minerals and conservation</h2>
<p>Mining conversations are taking on new urgency as the U.S. pursues a clean energy transition and works to secure essential materials for a modern technology-based economy. In my view, focusing myopically on critical minerals and moving forward with a new era of domestic mining should not occur without reforming the 1872 law. </p>
<p>A rewrite of the law could streamline permitting and create a planning process for mining on public land that mirrors the existing process for energy projects. Halting climate change and powering a new green economy may involve some trade-offs between short-term and long-term environmental protection goals. </p>
<p>But these choices can be made thoughtfully, with a focus on protecting America’s treasured public lands. In 1872, our nation’s lands and natural resources may have seemed inexhaustible; today, we know they are finite, and that using them responsibly means balancing development and stewardship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sam Kalen served as Special Assistant to the Associate Solicitor for Minerals and Resources at the US Department of the Interior from 1994-1996. Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.</span></em></p>Hard rock minerals like gold, silver, copper and lithium on public lands belong to the American public, but under a 150-year-old law, the US gives them away for free.Sam Kalen, Associate Dean and Professor of Law, University of WyomingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2207712024-01-19T13:40:44Z2024-01-19T13:40:44ZOld forests are critically important for slowing climate change and merit immediate protection from logging<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570228/original/file-20240118-23-ojgpd7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C13%2C2323%2C1893&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An old-growth forest of noble fir trees at Marys Peak in Oregon's Coast Range.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beverly Law</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forests are an essential part of Earth’s operating system. They reduce the buildup of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and land degradation <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/5301/2023">by 30% each year</a>. This slows global temperature increases and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022">resulting changes to the climate</a>. In the U.S., forests take up <a href="https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-04/US-GHG-Inventory-2023-Main-Text.pdf">12% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions annually</a> and store the carbon long term in trees and soils.</p>
<p>Mature and old-growth forests, with larger trees than younger forests, play an outsized role in accumulating carbon and <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">keeping it out of the atmosphere</a>. These forests are especially <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">resistant to wildfires and other natural disturbances</a> as the climate warms.</p>
<p>Most forests in the continental U.S. have been harvested multiple times. Today, just 3.9% of timberlands across the U.S., in public and private hands, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-97">are over 100 years old</a>, and most of these areas hold relatively little carbon compared with their potential. </p>
<p>The Biden administration is moving to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-09138/strengthening-the-nations-forests-communities-and-local-economies">improve protection for old-growth and mature forests</a> on federal land, which we see as a welcome step. But this involves regulatory changes that will likely take several years to complete. Meanwhile, existing forest management plans that allow logging of these important old, large trees remain in place.</p>
<p>As scientists who have spent decades studying <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J2KWqAoAAAAJ&hl=en">forest ecosystems</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Moomaw">the effects of climate change</a>, we believe that it is essential to start protecting carbon storage in these forests. In our view, there is ample scientific evidence to justify an immediate moratorium on logging mature and old-growth forests on federal lands. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Remote sensing data from space is a new tool for estimating forest growth and density.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Federal action to protect mature and old-growth forests</h2>
<p>A week after his inauguration in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that set a goal of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/27/executive-order-on-tackling-the-climate-crisis-at-home-and-abroad/">conserving at least 30%</a> of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 to address what the order called “a profound climate crisis.” In 2022, Biden recognized the climate importance of mature and old-growth forests for a healthy climate and <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-09138/strengthening-the-nations-forests-communities-and-local-economies">called for conserving them</a> on federal lands.</p>
<p>Most recently, in December 2023, the U.S. Forest Service announced that it was <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/12/20/2023-27875/land-management-plan-direction-for-old-growth-forest-conditions-across-the-national-forest-system">evaluating the effects</a> of amending management plans for 128 U.S. national forests to better protect mature and old-growth stands – the first time any administration has taken this kind of action. </p>
<p>These actions seek to make existing old-growth forests more resilient; preserve ecological benefits that they provide, such as habitat for threatened and endangered species; establish new areas where <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">old-growth conditions</a> can develop; and monitor the forests’ condition over time. The amended national forest management plans also would prohibit logging old-growth trees for mainly economic purposes – that is, producing timber. Harvesting trees would be permitted for other reasons, such as thinning to reduce fire severity in hot, dry regions where fires occur more frequently. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman rests her hand on the trunk of an enormous tree, looking up toward its crown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570231/original/file-20240118-24-xa1x8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Forest biologist Beverly Law with an old-growth Douglas fir in Corvallis, Oregon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Beverly Law</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Remarkably, however, logging is hardly considered in the Forest Service’s <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/mature-and-old-growth-forests-tech.pdf">initial analysis</a>, although studies show that it causes greater carbon losses than wildfires and pest infestations. </p>
<p>In one analysis across 11 western U.S. states, researchers calculated total aboveground tree carbon loss from logging, beetle infestations and fire between 2003 and 2012 and found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">logging accounted for half of it</a>. Across the states of California, Oregon and Washington, harvest-related carbon emissions between 2001 and 2016 averaged <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab28bb">five times the emissions</a> from wildfires.</p>
<p>A 2016 study found that nationwide, between 2006 and 2010, total carbon emissions from logging were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-016-0066-5">comparable to emissions from all U.S. coal plants</a>, or to direct emissions from the entire building sector. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of a furry animal with small rounded ears" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569933/original/file-20240117-19-wsd8su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=723&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pacific fishers (<em>Pekania pennanti</em>) are small carnivores related to minks and otters. They live in forests with large, mixed-tree canopy covers, mainly on federal land on the West Coast. A subpopulation in the southern Sierra Nevada is listed as endangered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/9PufBo">Pacific Southwest Forest Service, USDA/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Logging pressure</h2>
<p>Federal lands are used for multiple purposes, including biodiversity and water quality protection, recreation, mining, grazing and timber production. Sometimes, these uses can conflict with one another – for example, <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43429">conservation and logging.</a>.</p>
<p>Legal mandates to manage land for multiple uses do not explicitly consider climate change, and federal agencies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3286">have not consistently factored climate change science</a> into their plans. Early in 2023, however, the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/">Council on Environmental Quality</a> directed federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change when they <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/09/2023-00158/national-environmental-policy-act-guidance-on-consideration-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-climate">propose major federal actions</a> that significantly affect the environment. </p>
<p>Multiple large logging projects on public land clearly qualify as major federal actions, but many thousands of acres have been <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/220.6">legally exempted</a> from such analysis. </p>
<p>Across the western U.S., <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">just 20% of relatively high-carbon forests</a>, mostly on federal lands, are protected from logging and mining. A study in the lower 48 states found that 76% of mature and old-growth forests on federal lands <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2022.979528">are vulnerable to logging</a>. Harvesting these forests would release about <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/land11050721">half of their aboveground tree carbon</a> into the atmosphere within one or two decades. </p>
<p>An analysis of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2023AV000965">152 national forests</a> across North America found that five forests in the Pacific Northwest had the highest carbon densities, but just 10% to 20% of these lands were protected at the highest levels. The majority of national forest area that is mature and old growth is not protected from logging, and <a href="https://www.climate-forests.org/worth-more-standing">current management plans</a> include logging of some of the largest trees still standing. </p>
<h2>Letting old trees grow</h2>
<p>Conserving forests is one of the most effective and lowest-cost options for managing atmospheric carbon dioxide, and mature and old-growth forests do this job most effectively. Protecting and expanding them does not require expensive or complex energy-consuming technologies, unlike some other <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-oil-industrys-pivot-to-carbon-capture-and-storage-while-it-keeps-on-drilling-isnt-a-climate-change-solution-171791">proposed climate solutions</a>.</p>
<p>Allowing mature and old-growth forests to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00027">continue growing</a> will remove from the air and store the largest amount of atmospheric carbon in the critical decades ahead. The sooner logging of these forests ceases, the more climate protection they can provide.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.woodwellclimate.org/staff/richard-birdsey/">Richard Birdsey</a>, a former U.S. Forest Service carbon and climate scientist and current senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, contributed to this article.</em></p>
<p><em>This is an update of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biden-administration-has-called-for-protecting-mature-us-forests-to-slow-climate-change-but-its-still-allowing-them-to-be-logged-199845">an article</a> originally published on March 2, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Law receives funding from the Conservation Biology Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Moomaw receives funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
</span></em></p>President Biden has called for protecting large, old trees from logging, but many of them could be cut while the regulatory process grinds forward.Beverly Law, Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science, Oregon State UniversityWilliam Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065662023-06-20T12:29:50Z2023-06-20T12:29:50ZUS national parks are crowded – and so are many national forests, wildlife refuges, battlefields and seashores<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532257/original/file-20230615-27-6ghr32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C18%2C6124%2C4073&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Visitors at Sliding Rock, a popular cascade in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Fj6MTR"> Cecilio Ricardo, USFS/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Outdoor recreation is on track for another record-setting year. In 2022, U.S. national parks logged more than <a href="https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSReports/National%20Reports/Annual%20Park%20Ranking%20Report%20(1979%20-%20Last%20Calendar%20Year)">300 million visits</a> – and that means a lot more people on roads and trails.</p>
<p>While research shows that spending time outside is <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-perks-of-being-outdoors-backed-up-by-science/">good for physical and mental health</a>, long lines and gridlocked roads can make the experience a lot less fun. Crowding also makes it harder for park staff to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/23016.htm">protect wildlife</a> and <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-world/2020/01/10/men-banned-yellowstone/">fragile lands</a> and respond to emergencies. To <a href="https://www.doi.gov/ocl/overcrowding-parks">manage the crowds</a>, some parks are experimenting with <a href="https://theconversation.com/overcrowded-us-national-parks-need-a-reservation-system-158864">timed-entry vehicle reservation systems</a> and permits for popular trails. </p>
<p>For all of their popularity, national parks are just one subset of U.S. public lands. Across the nation, the federal government owns more than <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R42346.pdf">640 million acres</a> (2.6 million square kilometers) of land. Depending on each site’s mission, its uses may include logging, livestock grazing, mining, oil and gas production, wildlife habitat or recreation – often, several of these at once. In contrast, national parks exist solely to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-grand-canyon-changed-our-ideas-of-natural-beauty-56204">protect some of the most important places</a> for public enjoyment.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ddXJpj5C9sgC&hl=en">my work</a> as a historian and researcher, I’ve explored the history of public land management and the role of national parks in shaping landscapes across the Americas. Many public lands are prime recreational territory and are also becoming increasingly crowded. Finding solutions requires visitors, gateway communities, state agencies and the outdoor industry to collaborate. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6z1yUu_ZO6s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. public lands are managed for many different purposes by an alphabet soup of federal agencies.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Alternatives to national parks</h2>
<p>The U.S. government is our nation’s largest land manager by far. Federal property makes up <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R42346.pdf">28% of surface land area</a> across the 50 states. In Western states like Nevada, the federal footprint can be as large as 80% of the land. That’s largely because much of this land is arid, and lack of water makes farming difficult. Other areas that are mountainous or forested were not initially viewed as valuable when they came under U.S. ownership – but values have changed.</p>
<p>Public lands are <a href="https://www.doi.gov/blog/americas-public-lands-explained">more diverse than national parks</a>. Some are scenic; others are just open space. They include all kinds of ecosystems, from forests to grasslands, coastlines, red rock canyons, deserts and ranges covered with sagebrush. They also include battlefields, rivers, trails and monuments. Many are remote, but others are near or within major metropolitan areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People on a deck at sunrise watch birds through binoculars and spotting scopes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532263/original/file-20230615-19-ttuksg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Birdwatchers at the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nature-and-bird-photographers-photograph-birds-at-sunrise-news-photo/144084510">Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Many people who love hiking, fishing, backpacking or other outdoor activities know that national parks are crowded, and they often seek other places to enjoy nature, including public lands. That trend intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns and social distancing protocols motivated people to get outside wherever they could. </p>
<p>The rise of remote work has also fueled a <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2023/subcounty-metro-micro-estimates.html">population shift</a> toward smaller Western towns with access to open space and good internet access for videoconferencing. Popular remote work bases like Durango, Colorado, and Bend, Oregon, have become known as “<a href="https://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/economy/2023-04-25/analysis-population-growth-across-large-swath-of-western-u-s-returns-to-pre-pandemic-levels">Zoom towns</a>” – a fresh take on the old boomtowns that brought people west in the 19th century. </p>
<p>With these new populations, gateway communities close to popular public lands face critical decisions. Outdoor recreation is a powerful economic engine: In 2021, it <a href="https://headwaterseconomics.org/economic-development/trends-performance/outdoor-recreation-economy-by-state/">contributed an estimated US$454 billion</a> to the nation’s economy – more than auto manufacturing and air transport combined. </p>
<p>But embracing recreational tourism can lead local communities into the <a href="https://headwaterseconomics.org/outdoor-recreation/amenity-trap/">amenity trap</a> – the paradox of loving a place to death. Recreation economies that fail to manage growth, or that neglect investments in areas like housing and infrastructure, risk compromising the sense of place that draws visitors. But planning can proactively shape growth to maintain community character and quality of life. </p>
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<h2>Broadening recreation</h2>
<p>People use public lands for many activities beyond a quiet hike in the woods. For instance, the Phoenix District of the federal Bureau of Land Management operates more than 3 million acres across central Arizona for at least <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/recreation/recreation-activities/arizona">14 different recreational uses</a>, including hiking, fishing, boating, target shooting, rock collecting and riding off-road vehicles. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/in-latest-skirmish-of-western-land-wars-congress-supports-mining-and-ranching-73032">Not all of these activities are compatible</a>, and many have not traditionally been rigorously managed. For example, target shooters sometimes bring objects like old appliances or furniture to use as improvised targets, then leave behind an unsightly mess. In response, the Phoenix District has <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/recreation/recreation-activities/arizona/recreational-shooting/phoenix-sites">designated recreational shooting sites</a> where it provides targets and warns against shooting at objects containing glass or hazardous materials, as well as <a href="https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/blm-sued-target-shooting-protected-arizona-sonoran-desert-monument-nra-11350232">cactuses</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A poster warns recreational shooters against using glass bottles as targets." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=314&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532246/original/file-20230615-16452-y1oe3n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Shooting at targets that contain glass or hazardous materials can contaminate nearby land.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2o1LPtV">BLM</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Skiing also can pose crowding challenges. Many downhill skiing facilities in the West operate on public land with permits from the managing agency – typically, the U.S. Forest Service. </p>
<p>One example, <a href="https://bogusbasin.org/">Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area</a> is a nonprofit ski slope 16 miles from Boise, Idaho. Demand surges on winter weekends with fresh powder, creating long lift lines and crowded slopes. </p>
<p>The mountain is open for 12 hours a day, and Bogus Basin uses <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps-andruscenter/re-creating-public-land-recreation/">creative pricing structures</a> for lift tickets to spread crowds out. For example, it draws younger skiers with discounted night skiing and retired skiers during the week. As a result, the parking lot only filled up once in the 2022-2023 season. </p>
<p>Local governments can help find ways to balance access with creative crowd management. In Seattle, King County launched <a href="https://trailheaddirect.org/about/">Trailhead Direct</a> to provide transit-to-trails services from Seattle to the Cascade Mountains. This approach expands access to the outdoors for city residents and reduces traffic on busy Interstate 90 and crowding in trailhead parking lots. </p>
<p>Other towns have partnered with federal land agencies to maintain trail systems, like the <a href="https://www.ridgetorivers.org/">Ridge to Rivers</a> network outside Boise and the <a href="http://fmtn.org/843/Outdoor-Recreation-News">River Reach trails</a> near Farmington, New Mexico. This helps the towns provide better nearby outdoor opportunities for residents and attract new businesses whose employees value quality of life. Creating corridors from the “<a href="https://www.blm.gov/national-office/public-room/strategic-plan/connecting-communities-blm-recreation-strategy-summary">backyard to the backcountry</a>,” as the Bureau of Land Management puts it, can help create vibrant communities.</p>
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<h2>A less-extractive view of public lands</h2>
<p>For many years, Western communities have viewed public lands as places to mine, log and graze sheep and cattle. Tensions between states and the federal government over federal land policy often reflect state resentment over decisions made in Washington, D.C. about local resources.</p>
<p>Now, land managers are seeing a pivot. While federal control will never be welcome in some areas, Western communities increasingly view federal lands as amenities and anchors for immense opportunities, including <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/sps-andruscenter/re-creating-public-land-recreation/">recreation and economic growth</a>. For example, Idaho is <a href="https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/jfac-advances-governors-recommendation-for-outdoor-recreation/">investing $100 million</a> for maintenance and expanded access on state lands, mirroring federal efforts.</p>
<p>As environmental law scholar Robert Keiter has pointed out, the U.S. has a lot of laws governing activities like logging, mining and energy development on public lands, but there’s <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3862057">little legal guidance for recreation</a>. Instead, agencies, courts and presidents are developing what Keiter calls “a common law of outdoor recreation,” bit by bit. By addressing crowding and the environmental impacts of recreation, I believe local communities can help the U.S. move toward better stewardship of our nation’s awe-inspiring public lands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206566/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Wakild has received past funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. </span></em></p>Crowding is increasingly affecting all kinds of public lands. Adjoining communities need to find ways to manage it, or risk harm to the attractions that make them a destination.Emily Wakild, Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Professor for the Environment and Public Lands, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2036512023-04-13T12:26:51Z2023-04-13T12:26:51ZThe Colorado River drought crisis: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520603/original/file-20230412-18-qqa033.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3484%2C2001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sprinklers water a lettuce field in Holtville, California with Colorado River water. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-aerial-view-shows-sprinklers-watering-a-lettuce-field-news-photo/1248577888">Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A 23-year western drought has drastically shrunk the Colorado River, which provides <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/climate/secure/docs/2016secure/factsheet/ColoradoRiverBasinFactSheet.pdf">water for drinking and irrigation</a> for Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and two states in Mexico. Under a <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/pao/pdfiles/crcompct.pdf">1922 compact</a>, these jurisdictions receive fixed allocations of water from the river – but now there’s not enough water to provide them.</p>
<p>As states try to negotiate ways to share the decreasing flow, the U.S. Department of the Interior is considering <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-announces-next-steps-protect-stability-and-sustainability-colorado">cuts of up to 25%</a> in allotments for California, Nevada and Arizona. The federal government can regulate these states’ water shares because they come mainly from <a href="https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/nature/overview-of-lake-mead.htm">Lake Mead</a>, the largest U.S. reservoir, which was created when the Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado River near Las Vegas. </p>
<p>These five articles from The Conversation’s archive explain what’s happening and what’s at stake in the Colorado River basin’s drought crisis. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and some of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., but its flow is dwindling.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. A faulty river compact</h2>
<p>The idea of negotiating a legally binding agreement to share river water among states was innovative in the 1920s. But the Colorado River Compact made some critical assumptions that have proved to be fatal flaws. </p>
<p>The lawyers who wrote the compact knew that the Colorado’s flow could vary and that they didn’t have enough data for long-term planning. But they still allocated fixed quantities of water to each participating state. “We know now that they <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-river-compacts-were-innovative-in-the-1920s-but-couldnt-foresee-todays-water-challenges-175121">used optimistic flow numbers</a> measured during a particularly wet period,” wrote <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LQcyNSwAAAAJ&hl=en">Patricia J. Rettig</a>, head archivist of Colorado State University’s <a href="https://lib.colostate.edu/find/archives-special-collections/collections/water-resources-archive/">Water Resources Archive</a>.</p>
<p>Nor did the compact encourage conservation as the West’s population grew. “When settlers developed the West, their prevailing attitude was that water reaching the sea was wasted, so people aimed to use it all,” Rettig observed. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/western-river-compacts-were-innovative-in-the-1920s-but-couldnt-foresee-todays-water-challenges-175121">Western river compacts were innovative in the 1920s but couldn't foresee today's water challenges</a>
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<h2>2. Temporary cuts aren’t big enough</h2>
<p>Western states have known for years that they were taking more water from the Colorado than nature was putting in. But reducing water use is politically charged, since it means imposing limits on such powerful constituencies as farmers and developers. </p>
<p>In 2019, officials from the U.S. government and the seven Colorado Basin states signed a seven-year drought contingency plan that temporarily reduced states’ water allocations. But the plan did not propose long-term strategies for addressing climate change or overuse of water in the region. </p>
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<p>“Since 2000, Colorado River flows have been 16% below the 20th-century average,” wrote water policy experts <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Brad-Udall">Brad Udall</a>, <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/program/hydrosciences/douglas-kenney#">Douglas Kenney</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hVCNqZUAAAAJ&hl=en">John Fleck</a>. “Temperatures across the Colorado River Basin are now over 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th-century average, and are certain to continue rising. Scientists have begun using the term ‘aridification’ to describe <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-states-buy-time-with-a-7-year-colorado-river-drought-plan-but-face-a-hotter-drier-future-119448">the hotter, drier climate in the basin</a>, rather than ‘drought,’ which implies a temporary condition.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/western-states-buy-time-with-a-7-year-colorado-river-drought-plan-but-face-a-hotter-drier-future-119448">Western states buy time with a 7-year Colorado River drought plan, but face a hotter, drier future</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<h2>3. The looming threat of dead pool</h2>
<p>Lake Mead and <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/projects/index.php?id=144">Lake Powell</a>, the other major reservoir on the lower Colorado River, were created to provide water for irrigation and to generate hydropower, which is produced by the force of water flowing through large turbines in the lakes’ dams. If water in either lake drops below the intakes for the turbines, the lake will fall below “minimum power pool” and stop producing electricity. </p>
<p>If water in the lakes dropped even further, <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-dead-pool-a-water-expert-explains-182495">they could reach “dead pool</a>,” the point at which water is too low to flow through the dam. This is an extreme scenario, but it can’t be ruled out, University of Arizona water expert <a href="https://robertglennon.net/">Robert Glennon</a> warned. In addition to drought and climate change, he noted, both lakes lie in canyons that “are V-shaped, like martini glasses – wide at the rim and narrow at the bottom. As levels in the lakes decline, each foot of elevation holds less water.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-dead-pool-a-water-expert-explains-182495">What is dead pool? A water expert explains</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic of Hoover Dam and water levels where power general and then water flow would stop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520605/original/file-20230412-16-e0mhui.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This graphic shows the water level in Lake Powell as of November 2022 and the levels that represent minimum power pool and dead pool.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://new.azwater.gov/news/articles/2022-03-11">Arizona Department of Water Resources</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Why hydropower matters</h2>
<p>Climate change and drought are <a href="https://theconversation.com/hydropowers-future-is-clouded-by-droughts-floods-and-climate-change-its-also-essential-to-the-us-electric-grid-182314">stressing hydropower generation</a> throughout the U.S. West by reducing snowpack and precipitation and drying up rivers. This could create serious stress for regional electric grid operators, according to Penn State civil engineers <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HoSryoQAAAAJ&hl=en">Caitlin Grady</a> and <a href="https://blogs.gwu.edu/caitlin-grady/team/">Lauren Dennis</a>. </p>
<p>“Because it can quickly be turned on and off, hydroelectric power can help control minute-to-minute supply and demand changes,” they wrote. “It can also help power grids quickly bounce back when blackouts occur. Hydropower makes up about 40% of U.S. electric grid facilities that can be started without an additional power supply during a blackout, in part because the fuel needed to generate power is simply the water held in the reservoir behind the turbine.”</p>
<p>While most hydropower dams are likely here to stay, in Grady’s and Dennis’ view, “climate change will change how these plants are used and managed.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hydropowers-future-is-clouded-by-droughts-floods-and-climate-change-its-also-essential-to-the-us-electric-grid-182314">Hydropower's future is clouded by droughts, floods and climate change – it's also essential to the US electric grid</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<h2>5. The resurrection of Glen Canyon</h2>
<p>Lake Powell was created by flooding Glen Canyon, a spectacular swath of canyons on the Utah-Arizona border. As the lake’s water level drops, many side canyons have reemerged. Effectively, climate change is draining the lake.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ftYToS4Gk_s?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A boat trip into zones of Glen Canyon that have been uncovered as water levels drop.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to recover a unique landscape, wrote University of Utah political scientist <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Mccool">Dan McCool</a>. “But <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-and-overuse-shrink-lake-powell-the-emergent-landscape-is-coming-back-to-life-and-posing-new-challenges-197340">managing this emergent landscape</a> also presents serious political and environmental challenges.” </p>
<p>In McCool’s view, a key priority should be to give Native American tribes a meaningful role in managing those lands – including cultural sites and artifacts that were flooded when the river was dammed. The river has also deposited massive quantities of sediments in the canyon behind the dam, some of which are contaminated. And as visitors flock to newly accessible side canyons, the area will need staff to manage visitors and protect fragile resources.</p>
<p>“Other landscapes are likely to emerge across the West as climate change reshapes the region and numerous reservoirs decline. With proper planning, Glen Canyon can provide a lesson in how to manage them,” McCool observed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-and-overuse-shrink-lake-powell-the-emergent-landscape-is-coming-back-to-life-and-posing-new-challenges-197340">As climate change and overuse shrink Lake Powell, the emergent landscape is coming back to life – and posing new challenges</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Two decades of drought have reduced the river’s flow by one-third compared to historical averages. The Biden administration is considering mandatory cuts to some states’ water allocations.Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1998452023-03-09T13:40:14Z2023-03-09T13:40:14ZThe Biden administration has called for protecting mature US forests to slow climate change, but it’s still allowing them to be logged<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514058/original/file-20230307-20-4x3z0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C15%2C3438%2C2286&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An old-growth tree that was cut in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-old-growth-tree-that-was-cut-is-seen-in-the-tongass-news-photo/1241027768">Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Forests are critically important for slowing climate change. They remove huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – <a href="https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022">30% of all fossil fuel emissions annually</a> – and store carbon in trees and soils. Old and mature forests are especially important: They handle droughts, storms and wildfires better than young trees, and they store more carbon.</p>
<p>In a 2022 executive order, President Joe Biden called for <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/04/27/2022-09138/strengthening-the-nations-forests-communities-and-local-economies">conserving mature and old-growth forests</a> on federal lands. Recently Biden <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-restores-roadless-protection-to-the-tongass-north-americas-largest-rainforest-164680">protected nearly half</a> of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from road-building and logging. </p>
<p>The Biden administration is compiling an inventory of mature and old-growth forests on public lands that will support further conservation actions. But at the same time, federal agencies are initiating and implementing numerous <a href="https://www.climate-forests.org/_files/ugd/ae2fdb_b5a2315e3e8b42498b4c269730c3955a.pdf">logging projects</a> in mature and old forests without accounting for how these projects will affect climate change or forest species. </p>
<p>As scientists who have spent decades studying <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J2KWqAoAAAAJ&hl=en">forest ecosystems</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Moomaw">climate change impacts</a>, we find that to effectively slow climate change, it is essential to increase carbon storage in these forests, not reduce it. A first step toward this goal would be to halt logging federal forests with relatively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">high-biomass carbon per acre</a> until the Biden administration develops a plan for conserving them. </p>
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<h2>Balancing timber and climate change</h2>
<p>Many of the <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R42346.pdf">640 million acres</a> that the federal government owns and manages are used for multiple purposes, including protecting biodiversity and water quality, recreation, mining, grazing and logging. Sometimes these uses conflict with one another. </p>
<p>Legal mandates to manage land for multiple uses do not explicitly mention climate change, and federal agencies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3286">have not consistently factored climate change science</a> into their plans. However, at the beginning of 2023, the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/">Council on Environmental Quality</a> directed federal agencies to consider the effects of climate change when they <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/09/2023-00158/national-environmental-policy-act-guidance-on-consideration-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-climate">propose major federal actions</a> that significantly affect the environment. </p>
<p>Some logging projects fall into this category. But many large logging projects that affect thousands of acres have been <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/36/220.6">legally exempted</a> from such analysis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Steep hills studded with evergreen trees and laced with narrow roads." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514055/original/file-20230307-2080-gczo6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Logging roads crisscross steep logged slopes in Idaho’s Clearwater National Forest in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/logging-roads-remaining-after-a-timber-sale-crisscross-news-photo/1189427245">Don & Melinda Crawford/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s lost when old trees are cut</h2>
<p>Most forests in the continental U.S. have been harvested multiple times. Today, fewer than 5% of these forests <a href="https://doi.org/10.2737/WO-GTR-97">are more than 100 years old</a>. Old, very large trees are the ones that hold the most carbon, and harvesting forests is the main driver of forest carbon loss. </p>
<p>For example, in Oregon’s national forests east of the Cascades crest, a 1990s policy formerly spared trees larger than 21 inches in diameter – but the rule was rolled back in 2021 so that large trees could be cut. A recent analysis found that these larger trees comprised just 3% of all trees in the six national forests, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.594274">accounted for 42% of living tree carbon</a>. </p>
<p>In the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, federal officials have approved 40,000 acres of harvest since 2016, targeting many mature and old trees. One 14,270-acre area that was approved for harvest in 2019 contained <a href="https://www.climate-forests.org/_files/ugd/ae2fdb_b5a2315e3e8b42498b4c269730c3955a.pdf">more than 130 stands older than 100 years</a>. This project required the construction of 25 miles of logging roads, which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40725-016-0044-x">can have harmful effects</a>, including fragmenting forests, polluting streams and making forests more vulnerable to human-caused wildfires. </p>
<p>Canada is also allowing large, mature trees to be harvested. In British Columbia, mature forests that include old-growth trees historically absorbed more carbon than they released to the atmosphere, resulting in a net carbon sink annually. But since 2002, these tracts have emitted more carbon than they removed from the atmosphere, primarily because of logging, beetle attacks and wildfires. According to British Columbia’s greenhouse gas emissions inventory, these forests now <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/climate-change/data/provincial-inventory">emit more carbon than the province’s energy sector</a>. </p>
<p>In eastern Canada, the Pacific Northwest and the southeastern U.S., timber companies have removed many old trees and replaced them with plantations that contain just one or two tree species. This shift has reduced the structural diversity of the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/forest-canopy">forest canopy</a> – the ecologically important layer formed by the crowns of trees – and the diversity of tree species. Losing old-forest habitat has also caused broad-scale <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01737-8">population declines</a> among many forest bird species in eastern Canada, and is likely having the same effect in the U.S.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dLOG5jzvnow?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This National Park Service video explains how a second-growth forest – one that has grown back after being logged – is less diverse and healthy than an old, mature forest.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More harvesting releases more carbon</h2>
<p>One argument forest product companies make to support logging is that wood can be regrown, and it <a href="https://bellwetherfp.com/lets-get-some-things-straight-about-logging-and-the-environment/#">releases less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere</a> than other building materials. Such claims often make optimistic assumptions that overstate the carbon benefits of harvesting trees by <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1e95">factors of 2 to 100</a>. </p>
<p>Some studies indicate that <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/thinning-forest-trees">thinning forests</a> by harvesting some trees and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1791">reintroducing low-intensity fires</a> can reduce the intensity of future wildfires, leaving more carbon stored in trees. But these studies don’t account for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-016-0066-5">large amount of carbon</a> that is released to the atmosphere after trees are cut.</p>
<p>In a review published in 2019, we worked with colleagues to estimate how much carbon was contained in trees that were harvested in Washington, Oregon and California from 1900 through 2015, and what happened to it after the trees were logged. We calculated that just 19% of the harvested carbon was in long-lived wood products like timber in buildings. Another 16% was in landfills, and the remaining 65% was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab28bb">released into the atmosphere</a> as carbon dioxide.</p>
<p>In contrast, in 2011 the Australian state of Tasmania <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/publications/state-and-territory-greenhouse-gas-inventories">suspended logging on half of its old-growth forest area</a>. Within less than a decade, Tasmania was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac661b">storing more carbon than it released</a> because it was avoiding harvest emissions and the mature trees it saved were accumulating so much carbon.</p>
<p>In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, implementation of the 1994 <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/r6/reo/overview.php#">Northwest Forest Plan</a>, which the Clinton administration developed to protect endangered species in old-growth forests on public lands, significantly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2014.11.023">increased carbon storage</a> over the next 17 years. In contrast, privately managed lands in the region accumulated virtually no additional carbon after accounting for losses from wildfire and harvesting.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Truck loaded with massive logs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514062/original/file-20230307-2223-vtcifz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A logging truck in the Pacific Northwest in 1954. Since 1600, 90% of the original forests in what is now the U.S. have been logged.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lumber-truck-pacific-northwest-usa-1950-news-photo/629442731">Universal History Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The cheapest and simplest way to capture carbon</h2>
<p>President Biden has set a goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/US-Long-Term-Strategy.pdf">net-zero by 2050</a> to avoid catastrophic climate change. To reach that goal, U.S. forests, lands and oceans will have to remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as the nation emits from fossil fuels, industry and agriculture. </p>
<p>In the western U.S., our research shows that protecting half of the mature carbon-dense forests in zones that are relatively less vulnerable to drought and fire could <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00326-0">triple carbon stocks and accumulation</a> on protected forests by 2050. A majority of these forests are on public lands.</p>
<p>The carbon dioxide that human activities are releasing into the atmosphere today will elevate global temperatures and raise sea levels <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0812721106">for 1,000 years or more</a>, unless societies can find ways to remove it. In its 2022 climate assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that protecting existing natural forests was “<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGII_Chapter02.pdf">the highest priority for reducing greenhouse gas emissions</a>.” </p>
<p>Conserving forests is one of the lowest-cost options for managing carbon dioxide emissions, and it doesn’t require <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-oil-industrys-pivot-to-carbon-capture-and-storage-while-it-keeps-on-drilling-isnt-a-climate-change-solution-171791">expensive or complex energy-consuming technologies</a>. In our view, sufficient science exists to justify a moratorium on harvesting mature trees on federal lands so that these forests can keep performing their invaluable work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Moomaw receives funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is affiliated with the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Moomaw has been a lead author of five major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beverly Law does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Protecting old and mature trees is the simplest and least expensive way to pull carbon out of the atmosphere – but proposed logging projects threaten mature stands across the US.Beverly Law, Professor Emeritus of Global Change Biology and Terrestrial Systems Science, Oregon State UniversityWilliam Moomaw, Professor Emeritus of International Environmental Policy, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973402023-02-06T13:27:56Z2023-02-06T13:27:56ZAs climate change and overuse shrink Lake Powell, the emergent landscape is coming back to life – and posing new challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507729/original/file-20230201-11157-wkkhhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5939%2C3341&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The white 'bathtub ring' around Lake Powell, which is roughly 110 feet high, shows the former high water mark.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/DroughtLakePowell/5288ffa6ba2c44f38526491d1fde4b77/photo">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Western states haggle over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/31/california-colorado-river-water-use-proposal">reducing water use</a> because of declining flows in the Colorado River Basin, a more hopeful drama is playing out in Glen Canyon. </p>
<p>Lake Powell, the second-largest U.S. reservoir, extends from northern Arizona into southern Utah. A critical water source for seven Colorado River Basin states, it has shrunk dramatically over the past 40 years. </p>
<p>An ongoing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/14/1080302434/study-finds-western-megadrought-is-the-worst-in-1-200-years">22-year megadrought</a> has lowered the water level to just <a href="https://lakepowell.water-data.com/index2.php">22.6% of “full pool</a>,” and that trend is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01290-z">expected to continue</a>. Federal officials assert that there are <a href="https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/8/1/23186668/lake-powell-debate-drain-western-drought-hydropower-utah-arizona-colorado-river-lake-mead">no plans to drain Lake Powell</a>, but overuse and climate change are draining it anyway. </p>
<p>As the water drops, Glen Canyon – one of the most scenic areas in the U.S. West – is reappearing. </p>
<p>This landscape, which includes the Colorado River’s main channel and about 100 side canyons, was flooded starting in the mid-1960s with the completion of <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/uc/rm/crsp/gc/">Glen Canyon Dam</a> in northern Arizona. The area’s stunning beauty and unique features have led observers to call it “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/07/1067716380/western-megadrought-climate-lake-powell-glen-canyon-reservoir">America’s lost national park</a>.” </p>
<p>Lake Powell’s decline offers an unprecedented opportunity to recover the unique landscape at Glen Canyon. But managing this emergent landscape also presents serious political and environmental challenges. In my view, government agencies should start planning for them now. </p>
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<h2>A tarnished jewel</h2>
<p>Glen Canyon Dam, which towers 710 feet high, was designed to create a water “bank account” for the Colorado River Basin. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation touted Lake Powell as the “<a href="https://energyhistory.yale.edu/library-item/bureau-reclamation-lake-powell-jewel-colorado-1965">Jewel of the Colorado</a>” and promised that it would be a motorboater’s paradise and an endless source of water and hydropower. </p>
<p>Lake Powell was so big that it took 17 years to fill to capacity. At full pool, it contained <a href="https://www.arizona-leisure.com/lake-powell-facts.html">27 million acre-feet of water</a> – enough to cover 27 million acres of land to a depth of one foot – and Glen Canyon Dam’s turbines could generate 1,300 megawatts of power when the reservoir was high. </p>
<p>Soon the reservoir was drawing <a href="https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/SSRSReports/Park%20Specific%20Reports/Recreation%20Visitors%20By%20Month%20(1979%20-%20Last%20Calendar%20Year)?Park=GLCA">millions of boaters and water skiers</a> every year. But starting in the late 1980s, its volume declined sharply as states drew more water from the Colorado River while climate change-induced drought reduced the river’s flow. Today the reservoir’s average volume is <a href="https://lakepowell.water-data.com/index2.php">less than 6 million acre-feet</a>.</p>
<p>Nearly every boat ramp is closed, and many of them sit far from the retreating reservoir. Hydropower production may cease as early as 2024 if the lake falls to “<a href="https://new.azwater.gov/news/articles/2022-03-11">minimum power pool</a>,” the lowest point at which the turbines can draw water. And water supplies to 40 million people are gravely endangered under current management scenarios. </p>
<p>These water supply issues have created a serious crisis in the basin, but there is also an opportunity to recover an amazing landscape. Over 100,000 acres of formerly flooded land have emerged, including world-class scenery that rivals some of the crown jewels of the U.S. national park system. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7jm08U38c0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As Lake Powell recedes, it is uncovering formerly flooded land and things that past visitors left behind.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bargained away</h2>
<p>Glen Canyon made a deep impression on explorer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Wesley-Powell">John Wesley Powell</a> when he surveyed the Colorado River starting in 1867. When Powell’s expedition <a href="https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/powell-1869-river-journey/">floated through Glen Canyon in 1869</a>, he wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“On the walls, and back many miles into the country, numbers of monument-shaped buttes are observed. So we have a curious ensemble of wonderful features – carved walls, royal arches, glens, alcove gulches, mounds, and monuments … past these towering monuments, past these oak-set glens, past these fern-decked alcoves, past these mural curves, we glide hour after hour.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A red rock cliff towers above trees and a small pool of water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507725/original/file-20230201-17231-cillry.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This side canyon emerged in recent years as Lake Powell shrank. The white ‘bathtub ring’ on the rock wall shows past water levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Craig McCool</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Glen Canyon remained relatively unknown until the late 1940s, when the Bureau of Reclamation <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/echo-park-dam-controversy">proposed several large dams</a> on the upper Colorado River for irrigation and hydropower. Environmentalists fiercely objected to one at Echo Park in <a href="https://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm">Dinosaur National Monument</a> on the Colorado-Utah border, alarmed by the prospect of building a dam in a national monument. Their <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/echo-park-dam-controversy">campaign to block it</a> succeeded – but in return they accepted a dam in Glen Canyon, a decision that former Sierra Club President David Brower later called <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2000/3/15/19496225/glen-canyon-outrage-br-2-sides-air-views-on-2-sides-of-the-still-controversial-dam">his greatest regret</a>.</p>
<h2>New challenges</h2>
<p>The first goal of managing the emergent landscape in Glen Canyon should be the inclusion of tribes in a co-management role. The Colorado River and its tributaries are managed through a complex maze of laws, court cases and regulations known as the “<a href="https://www.crwua.org/law-of-the-river.html">Law of the River</a>.” In an act of stupendous injustice, the Law of the River ignored the water rights of Native Americans until <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-climate-change-parches-the-southwest-heres-a-better-way-to-share-water-from-the-shrinking-colorado-river-168723">courts stepped in</a> and required western water users to consider their rights. </p>
<p>Tribes received no water allocation in the 1922 <a href="https://www.usbr.gov/lc/region/pao/pdfiles/crcompct.pdf">Colorado River Compact</a> and were ignored or trivialized in subsequent legislation. Even though modern concepts of water management emphasize including all major stakeholders, tribes were excluded from the policymaking process. </p>
<p>There are 30 tribes in the Colorado River Basin, at least 19 of which have an association with Glen Canyon. They have rights to a substantial portion of the river’s flow, and there are thousands of <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/10/24/cultural-sites-are-being/">Indigenous cultural sites in the canyon</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CdBMZPjrEhq/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Another management challenge is the massive amounts of sediment that have accumulated in the canyon. “Colorado” means “colored red” in Spanish, a recognition of the silt-laden water. This silt used to build beaches in the Grand Canyon, just downstream, and created the Colorado River delta in Mexico. </p>
<p>But for the past 63 years, it has been accumulating in Lake Powell, where it now clogs some sections of the main channel and will eventually accumulate below the dam. Some of it is <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/pollution-a-26-000-ton-pile-of-radioactive-waste-lies-under-the-waters-and-silt-of-lake-powell">laced with toxic materials</a> from mining decades ago. As more of the canyon is exposed, it may become necessary to create an active sediment management plan, including possible mechanical removal of some materials to protect public health. </p>
<p>The creation of Lake Powell also resulted in biological invasives, including <a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/50477865/feds-fighting-back-against-invasive-fish-species-near-lake-powell">nonnative fish and quagga mussels</a>. Some of these problems will abate as the reservoir declines and a free-flowing river replaces stagnant still water. </p>
<p>On a more positive note, native plants are <a href="https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/water-wars/lake-powell-water-dry-up-causing-glen-canyon-ecosystems-wildlife-flourish/75-06cac37f-d109-4188-a6b8-d1594d205a60">recolonizing side canyons</a> as they become exposed, creating verdant canyon bottoms. Restoring natural ecosystems in the canyon will require innovative biological management strategies as the habitat changes back to a more natural landscape. </p>
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<p>Finally, as the emergent landscape expands and side canyons recover their natural scenery, Glen Canyon will become a unique tourist magnet. As the main channel reverts to a flowing river, users will no longer need an expensive boat; anyone with a kayak, canoe or raft will be able to enjoy the beauty of the canyons.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/glca/index.htm">Glen Canyon National Recreation Area</a>, which includes over 1.25 million acres around Lake Powell, was created to cater to people in motorized boats on a flat-water surface. Its staff will need to develop new capabilities and an active visitor management plan to protect the canyon and prevent the kind of crowding that is <a href="https://theconversation.com/overcrowded-us-national-parks-need-a-reservation-system-158864">overrunning other popular national parks</a>.</p>
<p>Other landscapes are likely to emerge across the West as climate change reshapes the region and numerous reservoirs decline. With proper planning, Glen Canyon can provide a lesson in how to manage them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I know many of the people involved in the controversy regarding the future of Lake Powell and Glen Canyon.</span></em></p>Lake Powell’s existential crisis is a unique opportunity to save a treasured landscape.Daniel Craig McCool, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of UtahLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762202022-03-21T12:13:53Z2022-03-21T12:13:53ZFewer Americans are hunting, and that raises hard questions about funding conservation through gun sales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452530/original/file-20220316-8728-l5b4hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3889%2C2559&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smith & Wesson handguns on display at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 19, 2016.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GunConvention/066474f818644d19b9e86d2d642ac973/photo">AP Photo/John Locher</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gun and ammunition sales in the U.S. have <a href="http://smallarmsanalytics.com/v1/pr/2022-01-05.pdf">skyrocketed in recent years</a>. And although it may come as a surprise, this trend has supported conservation activities.</p>
<p>That’s because every firearm and bullet produced or imported into the U.S. is subject to an excise tax dedicated to wildlife conservation and restoration. In 1998, these taxes generated about US$247 million in inflation-adjusted apportionments to state fish and wildlife agencies from the federal <a href="https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/final-apportionments-wildlife-restoration-and-sportfish-restoration-funds">U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service</a>, which collects and manages these funds. By 2018, these revenues had more than tripled to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/supplemental-materials/">$829 million</a>. </p>
<p>These taxes on guns and ammunition sales provide a growing share of budgets for state fish and game agencies. But as scholars of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=rFOIG04AAAAJ&hl=en">environmental politics</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jaT2oe0AAAAJ&hl=en">conservation</a> and <a href="https://sites.bu.edu/urbanwilds/">wildlife management</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27100579">we have found</a> that the growth in conservation funding driven by exploding guns sales presents at least three critical moral and ethical issues. </p>
<p>First, the original argument for using gun taxes to fund conservation was that most gun users were hunters who used lands and wildlife, and should help to support those resources. But our research shows that gun use is increasingly unrelated to hunting. </p>
<p>Second, the recent spike in gun sales is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/04/us/us-gun-sales-surge/index.html">linked to violence and social unrest</a>. Even if most gun owners never commit a crime, this means that overall, conservation is benefiting from gun-related social strife and harm. </p>
<p>Finally, recent changes to the law allow the use of gun-related excise taxes to support activities with little or no connection to hunting, wildlife or outdoor recreation.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Hunting and fishing fees are an important funding source for conservation in the U.S. But as hunting declines, gun-related conservation funding increasingly comes from firearms and ammunition sold for other purposes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A marriage of guns and conservation</h2>
<p>At the end of the 19th century, many wild species across the U.S. were threatened by over-hunting and unregulated markets for wild game products. Companies used <a href="https://theconversation.com/historical-photo-of-mountain-of-bison-skulls-documents-animals-on-the-brink-of-extinction-148780">bison bones</a> to make “bone china” and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-two-women-ended-the-deadly-feather-trade-23187277/">bird plumage to decorate hats</a>. Many species were hunted to the brink of extinction. Some, like the passenger pigeon, were <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-passenger-pigeons-went-extinct-a-century-ago-132736">fully exterminated</a>. </p>
<p>In an effort to restore game populations for sport hunters, federal and state governments established fish and wildlife agencies. But these offices were often underfunded. </p>
<p>The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, commonly known as the <a href="https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-Wildlife-Restoration-Act-of-1937/">Pittman-Robertson Act</a>, increased conservation funding by redirecting an existing excise tax on firearms to a dedicated wildlife management fund. Over time, the law expanded to include excise taxes that manufacturers today pay on long guns, handguns, ammunition and archery equipment. To access these funds, states must use fees from hunting licenses exclusively to support fish and wildlife agencies. </p>
<p>Pittman-Robertson funds make up a large fraction of state fish and wildlife agency budgets. In 2018, for example, we estimate that about 25% of the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s $62 million appropriations came from excise taxes generated by Pittman-Robertson. In Massachusetts, the number was 43%. </p>
<p></p>
<h2>Fewer hunters, more gun sales</h2>
<p>The idea behind Pittman-Robertson was simple enough: Taxes on hunting supplies should support the agencies that manage wildlife. This idea persists today. <a href="https://www.nssf.org/articles/firearm-industry-surpasses-14-billion-in-pittman-robertson-excise-tax-contributions-for-conservation/">Gun manufacturers</a> and <a href="https://partnerwithapayer.org/">fish and game agencies</a> regularly <a href="https://www.fishwildlife.org/application/files/3815/3719/7536/Southwick_Assoc_-_NSSF_Hunting_Econ.pdf">celebrate hunters’ financial contributions</a> to conservation. </p>
<p>Since the early 2000s, however, gun and ammunition sales have begun to disconnect from hunting. Nationally, the number of hunters declined from a peak of 17 million in 1982 to <a href="https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2018/demo/fhw16-nat.pdf">11.5 million in 2016</a>. By comparison, in the same year, Gallup estimated that about <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1645/guns.aspx">93 million Americans owned guns</a>. </p>
<p>These numbers suggest that only about 1 in 8 gun owners hunted in 2016. This pattern echoes a 2015 analysis by Southwick Associates, a consulting firm that works closely with the firearms industry, that found that <a href="https://www.southwickassociates.com/proportions-of-excise-taxes-generated-by-hunting-versus-non-hunting-activities/">80% of firearms sales in 2015 were for nonhunting activities</a> like sport shooting, gun collecting and self-defense.</p>
<p><a href="https://wildlifemanagement.institute/brief/september-2017/fws-releases-2016-survey-wildlife-related-recreation">Other outdoor recreational activities, meanwhile, are growing</a>. Birding, hiking and backpacking are consistently among the fastest growing outdoor recreation activities. <a href="https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/ja/ja_cordell002.pdf">Birding increased by 232% from 1983 to 2001</a>. Unlike hunting and fishing, there is no federal requirement for people who engage in these activities to contribute to conservation.</p>
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<h2>Profiting from social violence</h2>
<p>Although most guns sold in the U.S. will not be involved in violent crimes, Pittman-Robertson does not differentiate between firearms and ammunition used for hunting and sport shooting versus those that are used to harm people. The guns and bullets involved in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/">over 45,000 gun-related deaths in 2020</a> generated excise taxes used to fund wildlife conservation. This means that protecting public lands and wildlife is irrevocably linked to social violence. It is also why some commentators <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/391916-gun-control-is-a-sure-way-to-hurt-conservation-efforts">worry that gun regulations could hurt conservation efforts</a>. </p>
<p>Data also shows that firearms sales are motivated by fears of violence and social unrest. Gun sales have increased <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/13/three-million-more-guns-the-spring-2020-spike-in-firearm-sales/">following mass shootings and racial justice protests and during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>. Anecdotal evidence suggests that over the past two years, some African Americans and Asian Americans purchased their first guns out of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/05/us-gun-ownership-black-americans-surge">fears of rising anti-Black and anti-Asian violence</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large migrating birds gather in a marsh." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452577/original/file-20220316-7761-1jtjuzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sandhill cranes at the Whitewater Drew State Wildlife Refuge, near McNeal, Arizona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2mX3E2J">Leah Moffatt/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wildlife conservation is benefiting from the fear, racism and sustained social conflict that drive gun sales. This raises a moral question: Is this the right way to fund conservation?</p>
<h2>Promoting nonhunting gun use</h2>
<p>As gun sales grow, the firearms industry has pushed to use Pittman-Robertson funds to support nonhunting gun uses. Gun manufacturers and sportsmen groups <a href="https://congressionalsportsmen.org/policies/federal/modernizing-the-pittman-robertson-fund">endorsed a set of reforms to Pittman-Robertson</a> that <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1865/text">became law in 2020</a>. These changes allow state and federal agencies to use Pittman-Robertson funds to promote recreational shooting and purchase land for shooting ranges. </p>
<p>Some organizations are concerned that these changes will <a href="https://www.ceasefireoregon.org/bills/target-practice-and-marksmanship-training-support-act/">redirect funding from wildlife restoration to target practice and marksmanship</a>. But hunting and shooting organizations argue that the new rules will generate more money for conservation activities. As a former president of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies stated in a recent interview: “<a href="https://www.outdoorlife.com/changes-to-pittman-robertson-funds-are-designed-to-save-next-endangered-species-hunters/">The goal is to improve and build more shooting ranges, this is where the money comes from</a>.”</p>
<h2>New sources for conservation funding</h2>
<p>Other groups have proposed ways to make wildlife conservation less dependent on guns.</p>
<p>One idea from some <a href="https://www.backcountryhunters.org/state_wildlife_areas_deserve_everyone_s_support">backcountry hunters</a> and <a href="https://www.fseee.org/2018/10/18/fseee-featured-in-magazine-article-on-backpack-tax/">Forest Service employees</a> is to create a “<a href="https://www.outsidebusinessjournal.com/issues/policy-and-government/public-lands/is-it-finally-time-for-the-backpack-tax/">backpack tax</a>” on equipment used for outdoor activities like hiking and birding. The outdoor industry has <a href="https://outdoorindustry.org/article/where-we-stand-on-the-backpack-tax/">opposed these proposals</a>, arguing that it is impossible to discern the actual use of outdoor products, and that such taxes may create more barriers for low-income individuals to participate in outdoor activities.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1431250655969259525"}"></div></p>
<p>Another proposal – this one embraced by the outdoor industry – asserts that Congress should leverage existing funds from other sources to support conservation. Moving away from funds generated by hunters could also give state agencies greater freedom to undertake projects for species other than popular game like deer and elk, which often <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-better-conserve-wildlife-consider-all-kinds-of-animals-not-just-the-ones-we-hunt-58556">are the focus of state conservation policies</a>. </p>
<p>This idea has bipartisan support and is moving through Congress as part of the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2773">Recovering America’s Wildlife Act</a>. That bill would direct $1.3 billion from the Treasury to the Pittman-Robertson Account, with a dedicated portion for endangered species recovery. </p>
<p>So long as hunting is part of the U.S. model of wildlife management, firearms will be intertwined with conservation. As we see it, though, proposals to change funding sources could help to address the moral concerns that grow out of this relationship, and could create opportunities for more effective conservation.</p>
<p>[<em>Get fascinating science, health and technology news.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-fascinating">Sign up for The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Casellas Connors receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Rea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every gun and bullet sold in the U.S. generates excise taxes to support conservation. But Americans are buying guns now for different reasons than in the past – and increasingly, not for hunting.John Casellas Connors, Assistant Professor of Geography, Texas A&M UniversityChristopher Rea, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734162022-02-02T13:08:50Z2022-02-02T13:08:50ZThe great Amazon land grab – how Brazil’s government is clearing the way for deforestation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442638/original/file-20220125-23-sjc83.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C14%2C1590%2C1123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A satellite captured large and small deforestation patches in Amazonas State in 2015. The forest loss has escalated since then.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/natural-satellite-image-of-deforestation-on-the-banks-of-news-photo/627792180">USGS/NASA Landsat data/Orbital Horizon/Gallo Images/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine that a group of politicians decide that Yellowstone National Park is too big, so they downsize the park by a million acres, then sell that land in a private auction.</p>
<p>Outrageous? Yes. Unheard of? No. <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1e24">It’s happening</a> with increasing frequency in the Brazilian Amazon. </p>
<p>The most widely publicized threat to the Amazonian rainforest is deforestation. A new study by European scientists released March 7, 2022, finds that tree clearing and less rainfall over the past 20 years have left <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01287-8">over 75% of the region increasingly less resilient to disturbances</a>, suggesting the rainforest may be nearing a tipping point for dieback. Fewer trees mean less moisture evaporating into the atmosphere to fall again as rain. </p>
<p>We have studied the Amazon’s changing hydroclimate, the role of deforestation and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00139157.2021.1842711">evidence that the Amazon is being pushed toward a tipping point</a> – as well as what that means for different regions, biodiversity and climate change.</p>
<p>While the rise in deforestation is clear, less well understood are the sources driving it – particularly the way public lands are being converted to private holdings in a land grab <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gabriel-Cardoso-Carrero">we’ve</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qcS5yogAAAAJ&hl=en">been</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PTEKYYoAAAAJ&hl=en">studying</a>
for the past decade. </p>
<p>Much of this land is cleared for cattle ranches and soybean farms, <a href="https://interactive.pri.org/2018/10/amazon-carbon/science.html">threatening biodiversity and the Earth’s climate</a>. Prior research has quantified how much public land has been grabbed, but only for one type of public land called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104863">undesignated public forests</a>.” Our research provides a complete account across all classes of public land. </p>
<p>We looked at Amazonia’s most active deforestation frontier, southern Amazonas State, starting in 2012 as rates of deforestation began to increase <a href="https://www.cell.com/one-earth/pdfExtended/S2590-3322(19)30081-8">because of loosened regulatory oversight</a>. Our research shows how land grabs are tied to accelerating deforestation spearheaded by wealthy interests, and how Brazil’s National Congress, by changing laws, is <a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2017/lei/l13465.htm">legitimizing these land grabs</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A section of forest showing different stages of deforestation." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442639/original/file-20220125-17-6i1s1l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three stages of deforestation: cleared land where the forest has recently been burned to create pasture; pastureland; and forest being burned.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/aerial-view-of-amazon-rainforest-deforestation-and-farm-news-photo/462437532">Ricardo Funari/Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How the Amazon land grab began</h2>
<p>Brazil’s modern land grab started in the 1970s, when the military government began offering free land to encourage mining industries and farmers to move in, <a href="https://origins.osu.edu/article/amazon-rainforest-under-threat-Bolsonaro-fires-agrobusiness-indigenous-Brazil?language_content_entity=en">arguing that national security</a> depended on developing the region. It took lands that had been under state jurisdictions since colonial times and allocated them to rural settlement, granting 150- to 250-acre holdings to poor farmers. </p>
<p>Federal and state governments ultimately designated over 65% of Amazonia to several public interests, including rural settlement. For biodiversity, they created conservation units, some allowing traditional resource use and subsistence agriculture. Leftover government lands are generally referred to as <a href="http://www.bibliotecaflorestal.ufv.br/handle/123456789/4031">“vacant or undesignated public lands.”</a> </p>
<h2>Tracking the land grab</h2>
<p>Studies have estimated that by 2020, <a href="https://ipam.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Amazo%CC%82nia-em-Chamas-7-Florestas-pu%CC%81blicas-na%CC%83o-destinadas.pdf">32% of “undesignated public forests”</a> had been grabbed for private use. But this is only part of the story, because land grabbing is now affecting many types of public land.</p>
<p>Importantly, land grabs now impact conservation areas and indigenous territories, where private holdings are forbidden. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A herd of cattle on grass with thick forest behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442640/original/file-20220125-15-wy06rh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cattle on land cleared in the Jamanxim National Forest in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/land-grabbing-cattle-raising-and-deforestation-illegal-news-photo/1228648531">Marco Antonio Rezende/Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We compared the boundaries of self-declared private holdings in the government’s Rural Environmental Registry database, known as CAR, with the boundaries of all public lands in southern Amazonas State. The region has 50,309 square miles in conservation units. Of these, we found that <a href="https://www.datawrapper.de/_/JbEql/">10,425 square miles, 21%</a>, have been “grabbed,” or declared in the CAR register as private between 2014 and 2020. </p>
<p>In the United States, this would be like having 21% of the national parks disappear into private property.</p>
<p>Our measurement is probably an underestimate, given that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.06.026">not all grabbed lands are registered</a>. Some land grabbers now use CAR <a href="https://www.socioambiental.org/en/noticias-socioambientais/even-before-approval-a-land-grab-draft-law-is-already-destroying-the-amazon">to establish claims that could become legal</a> with changes in the law.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of the region showing deforestation and public lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Cardoso Carrero</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Land grabs put the rainforest at risk by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab1e24">increasing deforestation</a>. In southern Amazonas, <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440680/original/file-20220113-25-10q4hm4.png">our research reveals that twice as much deforestation occurred on illegal as opposed to legal CAR holdings between 2008 and 2021</a>, a relative magnitude that is growing. </p>
<h2>Large deforestation patches point to wealth</h2>
<p>So who are these land grabbers? </p>
<p>In Pará State, Amazonas State’s neighbor, deforestation in the 1990s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8306.9302008">was dominated by poor family farms in rural settlements</a>. On average, these households accumulated 120 acres of farmland after several decades by opening 4-6 acres of forest every few years in clearings visible on satellite images as deforestation patches. </p>
<p>Since then, <a href="https://www.datawrapper.de/_/JbEql/">patch sizes have grown dramatically</a> in the region, with most deforestation occurring on illicit holdings whose patches are much larger than on legal holdings. </p>
<p><iframe id="JbEql" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/JbEql/12/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Large deforestation patches <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01354-w">indicate the presence of wealthy grabbers</a>, given the cost of clearing land.</p>
<p>Land grabbers benefit by selling the on-site timber and by subdividing what they’ve grabbed for sale in small parcels. Arrest records and research by groups such as Transparency International Brasil show that <a href="https://comunidade.transparenciainternacional.org.br/grilagem-de-terras">many of them are involved in criminal enterprises</a> that use the land for money laundering, tax evasion and illegal mining and logging.</p>
<p>In the 10-year period before President Jair Bolsonaro took office, <a href="http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/map/deforestation?hl=en">satellite data</a> showed two deforestation patches exceeding 3,707 acres in Southern Amazonas. Since his election in 2019, we can identify nine massive clearings with an average size of 5,105 acres. The clearance and preparation cost for each Bolsonaro-era deforestation patch, legal or illicit, would be about US$353,000. </p>
<h2>Legitimizing land grabbing</h2>
<p>Brazil’s National Congress has been making it easier to grab public land. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2017/lei/l13465.htm">A 2017 change in the law</a> expanded the legally allowed size of private holdings in undesignated public lands and in rural settlements. This has reclassified over 1,000 square miles of land that had been considered illegal in 2014 as legal in southern Amazonas. Of all illegal <a href="https://www.car.gov.br/#/baixar">CAR claims</a> in undesignated public lands and rural settlements in 2014, <a href="http://atlasagropecuario.imaflora.org/mapa">we found that 94% became legal in 2017</a>.</p>
<p>Congress is now considering two additional pieces of legislation. One <a href="https://legis.senado.leg.br/sdleg-getter/documento?dm=9050818&ts=1639516395952&disposition=inline">would legitimize land grabs up to 6,180 acres, about 9.5 square miles</a>, in all undesignated public forests – an amount <a href="http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2017/lei/l13465.htm">already allowed by law</a> in other types of undesignated public lands. The second would legitimize large holdings on about <a href="https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/prop_mostrarintegra;jsessionid=node0ncik9mq5phv818u4p592bgsuc3415152.node0?codteor=2066398&filename=Tramitacao-PL+4348/2019">80,000 square miles of land once meant for the poor</a>. </p>
<p>Our research also shows that the federal government increased the amount of public land up for grabs in southern Amazonas by shrinking rural settlements by 16%, just over 2,000 square miles, between <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00267-016-0783-2.pdf">2015</a> and <a href="https://certificacao.incra.gov.br/csv_shp/export_shp.py">2020</a>. <a href="https://governancadeterras.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Andre%CC%81-Segura-Tomasi-PAF-Curuquete%CC%82-Grilagem-de-Terras-e-Viole%CC%82ncia-Agra%CC%81ria-SulAM-1.pdf">Large ranches are now absorbing that land</a>. Similar downsizing of public land has affected <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/627431/pdf?casa_token=w5cmTxINMOYAAAAA:SwlFEGwJj4BsjBSYggfqbr57fsSgCyOw9AcykDICyjSIzl05hFLFhRADSEJENKFDyqyf4Z5_lQ">Amazonia’s national parks</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c4-KpR1HrNs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Satellite images over time show how deforestation spread in the Amazon.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What can turn this around?</h2>
<p>Because of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1248525">policy interventions and the greening of agricultural supply chains</a>, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell after 2005, reaching a low point in 2012, when it began trending up again <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105072">because of weakening environmental governance and reduced surveillance</a>.</p>
<p>Other countries <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-amazon-norway/norway-to-complete-1-billion-payment-to-brazil-for-protecting-amazon-idUSKCN0RF1P520150915">have helped Brazil with billions of dollars</a> to protect the Amazon for the good of the climate, but in the end, the land belongs to Brazil. Outsiders have limited power to influence its use.</p>
<p>At the U.N. climate summit in 2021, 141 countries – including Brazil – signed a <a href="https://ukcop26.org/glasgow-leaders-declaration-on-forests-and-land-use/">pledge to end deforestation by 2030</a>. This pledge holds potential because, unlike past ones, the private sector has committed <a href="https://cnr.ncsu.edu/news/2021/11/cop26-deforestation-pledge-a-promising-solution-with-an-uncertain-future/">$7.2 billion to reduce agriculture’s impact on the forest</a>. In our view, the global community can help by insisting that supply chains for Amazonian beef and soybean products originate on lands deforested long ago and whose legality is long-standing.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated March 7, 2022, with new research suggesting the Amazon is nearing a tipping point.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel Cardoso Carrero received funding from the Tropical Conservation and Development Program at the University of Florida to conduct fieldwork related to this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cynthia S. Simmons and Robert T. Walker do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Land grabs spearheaded by wealthy interests are accelerating deforestation, and Brazil’s National Congress is working to legitimize them.Gabriel Cardoso Carrero, Graduate Student Fellow and PhD Candidate in Geography, University of FloridaCynthia S. Simmons, Professor of Geography, University of FloridaRobert T. Walker, Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695732021-10-08T17:26:39Z2021-10-08T17:26:39ZBiden restores protection for national monuments Trump shrank: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425507/original/file-20211008-13-1pz09lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5485%2C3088&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The twin buttes that give Bears Ears National Monument in Utah its name are sacred places to many Indigenous Tribes and Pueblos.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bears-ears-as-seen-from-natural-bridges-national-royalty-free-image/1203244684">T. Schofield, iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 7, 2021, the Interior Department announced that President Biden was <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/administration-leaders-applaud-president-bidens-restoration-national-monuments">restoring protection</a> for three U.S. national monuments that the Trump administration sought to shrink drastically: <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears</a> and <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante</a> in Utah, and <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/habitat-conservation/northeast-canyons-and-seamounts-marine-national">Northeast Canyons and Seamounts</a> in the Atlantic Ocean. President Trump’s 2017 orders downsizing these monuments, originally created by previous administrations, ignited debate over whether such action was legal. Here are five articles from our archives that examine this controversy.</p>
<h2>1. A law rooted in presidential power</h2>
<p>Presidents can designate lands as national monuments quickly, without seeking consent from Congress, under the 1906 <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R41330.pdf">Antiquities Act</a>. Congress passed the law to protect historically valuable archaeological sites in the Southwest that were being looted. </p>
<p>But as the late <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XcJV-xEAAAAJ&hl=en">John Freemuth</a>, a public policy scholar at Boise State University, observed, presidents soon were <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">using it much more expansively</a> – and affected interests pushed back: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Use of the Antiquities Act has fueled tensions between the federal government and states over land control – and not just in the Southwest region that the law was originally intended to protect. Communities have opposed creating new monuments for fear of losing revenues from livestock grazing, energy development, or other activities, although such uses have been allowed to continue at many national monuments.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Freemuth predicted in a 2016 article that “future designations will succeed only if federal agencies consult widely in advance with local communities and politicians to confirm that support exists.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">How the Antiquities Act has expanded the national park system and fueled struggles over land protection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"606156058814476288"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. Can presidents alter monuments their predecessors created?</h2>
<p>Many environmental advocacy groups and tribes opposed President Trump’s order to remove large swaths of land from these three monuments and sued to block it. The Antiquities Act is silent on this question. But when The Conversation asked environmental lawyers <a href="https://www.law.lsu.edu/directory/profiles/nicholas-bryner/">Nicholas Bryner</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_YZy3OwAAAAJ&hl=en">Eric Biber</a>, <a href="https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=189">Mark Squillace</a> and <a href="https://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=189">Sean Hecht</a>, they argued – based on other environmental statutes and legal opinions – that <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">such acts would require congressional approval</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Courts have always been deferential to presidents’ use of the law, and no court has ever struck down a monument based on its size or the types of objects it is designed to protect. Congress, rather than the president, has the authority to alter monuments, should it decide that changes are appropriate.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">President Trump's national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court</a>
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<h2>3. Monuments have scenic, cultural and scientific value</h2>
<p>National monuments protect many unique resources. For example, Bears Ears conserves land where Indigenous people have lived, hunted and worshiped for centuries. The Bears Ears designation was requested by an intertribal coalition and approved by President Barack Obama after extensive consultation with tribal governments.</p>
<p>Many national monuments contain scenic lands and areas that are critical habitat for endangered species, such as desert tortoises and California condors. The underwater canyons of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts house sponges, corals, squid, octopus, numerous fish species and <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/habitat-conservation/northeast-canyons-and-seamounts-marine-national">endangered sperm whales</a>.</p>
<p>Monuments also can have important scientific value. President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante partly to protect <a href="https://theconversation.com/shrinking-the-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-is-a-disaster-for-paleontology-103414">thousands of unique fossil sites</a>, most of which had yet to be studied. Many were located in areas near potential shale gas, coal or uranium extraction zones.</p>
<p>“Decades of ongoing research in this region have literally rewritten what scientists know about Mesozoic life, especially about the ecosystems that immediately preceded the final extinction of the dinosaurs,” Indiana University earth scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPOrK60AAAAJ&hl=en">P. David Polly</a> writes. “Paleontologists like me know that the still-pristine Grand Staircase-Escalante region has divulged only a fragment of its paleontological story.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shrinking-the-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument-is-a-disaster-for-paleontology-103414">Shrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a disaster for paleontology</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientists sitting in the dirt brush soil away from fossilized bones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/425512/original/file-20211008-15-fjkmi6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers dig for fossils in Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which has emerged as one of the most important paleontological reserves in the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=117745&org=NSF">Utah Museum of Natural History</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>4. How a Native American Interior Secretary sees it</h2>
<p>The stark difference between the Trump and Biden administrations’ public land policies can be summed up by comparing their respective interior secretaries. </p>
<p>President Trump chose U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke of Montana to head the agency, which manages more than 480 million acres of public lands, including national monuments. Zinke, who supported opening public lands for oil and gas development and mining, led a review that proposed shrinking the three monuments Biden has just restored. </p>
<p>President Biden’s interior secretary, former U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico, is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-country-is-excited-about-the-first-native-american-secretary-of-the-interior-and-the-promise-she-has-for-addressing-issues-of-importance-to-all-americans-153775">first Native American</a> to head the agency that maintains government-to-government relationships with and provides services to Native American Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities.</p>
<p>“For Native Americans, seeing people who look like us and are from where we come from in some of the highest elected and appointed offices in the U.S. demonstrates inclusion. Indian Country finally has a seat at the table,” writes Arizona State University Indigenous studies scholar <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Bc-RS6QAAAAJ&hl=en">Traci Morris</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-country-is-excited-about-the-first-native-american-secretary-of-the-interior-and-the-promise-she-has-for-addressing-issues-of-importance-to-all-americans-153775">'Indian Country' is excited about the first Native American secretary of the interior – and the promise she has for addressing issues of importance to all Americans</a>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vSYw43bEIII?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Utah Native Americans support President Biden’s decision to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante to their original boundaries.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>5. Monuments aren’t always beloved at first</h2>
<p>Some of the most popular U.S. national parks initially were protected as national monuments, then expanded and given national park status by Congress years later. They include <a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm">Acadia</a> in Maine, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm">Joshua Tree</a> in Southern California, and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm">Arches</a> in Utah. </p>
<p>But a site’s merit may not be obvious at first. As Arizona State University’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Pyne">Stephen Pyne</a> writes, the first Europeans who explored the Grand Canyon in the 18th and 19th centuries thought it was unremarkable or worse; one called it “altogether valueless.”</p>
<p>Then geologists working for the federal government traversed the canyon, and wrote rapturous accounts that <a href="https://theconversation.com/grand-canyon-national-park-turns-100-how-a-place-once-called-valueless-became-grand-111144">recast it as a marvel</a> – a shift that Pyne calls “an astonishing reversal of perception”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The geologic mystery of the canyon is how the south-trending Colorado River made a sudden turn westward to carve its way, cross-grained, through four plateaus. This is also more or less what happened culturally. Intellectuals cut against existing aesthetics to make a place that looked nothing like pastorals or alpine mountains into a compelling spectacle.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>President Theodore Roosevelt agreed. After making multiple visits to the canyon, he designated it as a national monument in 1908. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grand-canyon-national-park-how-a-place-once-called-valueless-became-grand-111144">Grand Canyon National Park: How a place once called 'valueless' became grand</a>
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</em>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Biden administration is restoring full protection to three national monuments that President Trump sought to cut down drastically.Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1537752021-02-16T13:28:22Z2021-02-16T13:28:22Z‘Indian Country’ is excited about the first Native American secretary of the interior – and the promise she has for addressing issues of importance to all Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383834/original/file-20210211-17-1j0wf8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3945%2C2970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland speaks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Oct. 1, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/native-american-candidate-deb-haaland-who-is-running-for-news-photo/1044568812?adppopup=true">Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Biden’s nomination of <a href="https://haaland.house.gov/about">U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico</a> to lead the <a href="https://www.doi.gov/">Department of the Interior</a> is historic on many levels. Haaland, an enrolled member of the <a href="https://www.lagunapueblo-nsn.gov/">Pueblo of Laguna</a>, was one of the first Native American women elected to Congress, along with U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas. And if confirmed, she will be the first Native American to head the agency that administers the nation’s <a href="https://www.bia.gov/frequently-asked-questions">trust responsibility</a> to American Indians and Alaska Natives. </p>
<p>Indian Country has a significant history with the Interior Department that has <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803287129/">more often been bad than good</a>. But <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/debra_haaland/412800">Haaland’s record</a> shows that she is committed to making progress on larger challenges that affect all Americans. She has been especially vocal on climate, environmental protection, public lands and natural resource management.</p>
<p>As the executive director of <a href="https://aipi.asu.edu/">one of the only Indigenous policy institutes in the nation</a>, a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Bc-RS6QAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of Indigenous studies</a> and a citizen of the <a href="https://www.chickasaw.tv/series/profiles-of-a-nation?ref=durl">Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma</a>, I’ve been acutely aware of Haaland’s work since she was elected to Congress in 2018. I’ve tracked her leadership on issues such as <a href="https://haaland.house.gov/media/press-releases/haaland-khanna-aim-achieve-broadband-all">broadband access</a> and infrastructure for Native nations.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xkHbh5xKh8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Accepting President Biden’s nomination as secretary of the interior, U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland observed, “This moment is profound when we consider the fact that a former secretary of the interior once proclaimed his goal to ‘civilize or exterminate’” Native Americans.</span></figcaption>
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<p>To Indian Country, Haaland is viewed as everybody’s “auntie.” Having her in leadership gives Native America a seat at the policymaking table. For New Mexico she has been a <a href="https://debforcongress.com/meet-deb/accomplishments/">productive member of Congress</a>, reelected in 2020 with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-new-mexico-house-district-1.html">over 58% of the vote</a>. And while a few Western senators have called her views “<a href="https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2021/02/08/senator-steve-daines-threatens-block-haaland-interior-secretary-confirmation/4439722001/">radical</a>,” I believe that Native issues are American issues. If Haaland is confirmed as interior secretary, many observers expect her to <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/12/17/biden-to-pick-rep-haaland-as-interior-secretary">provide bold leadership</a> for an agency that oversees what is arguably the heart of America: its land.</p>
<h2>A big portfolio</h2>
<p>Haaland grew up in a military family, raised a daughter as a single parent and worked in tribal administration before entering politics. A self-described “proud progressive,” she <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/1505620/proud-progressive-haaland-seeks-2nd-term.html">supports policies including</a> a ban on hydraulic fracking, the Green New Deal, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and a national single-payer health care system. </p>
<p>Haaland’s knowledge of Native and Western issues are important credentials for heading the Interior Department. <a href="https://www.doi.gov/whoweare/history">Created in 1849</a>, the agency manages U.S. cultural and natural resources. It has nine technical bureaus, eight offices and 70,000 employees, including many scientists and natural resource management experts. </p>
<p>The department’s portfolio includes national parks and wildlife refuges, multiuse public lands, ocean energy development, regulation of surface mining and mine cleanups and research conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey. It oversees the use of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45480.pdf">more than 480 million acres of public lands</a>, mainly in Western states, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals and 1.7 billion acres of the outer continental shelf along U.S. coastlines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of public lands managed by the Interior Department." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383851/original/file-20210211-21-1pe8y93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Interior Department oversees more than 480 million acres of public lands, mostly in the Western U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/printable-map-department-interior-lands">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One key departmental mission is fulfilling the <a href="https://www.bia.gov/frequently-asked-questions">trust responsibility</a> – a legal obligation that the U.S. has to uphold promises made to tribal nations in exchange for their lands. This political relationship is derived from 370 treaties between the federal government and Native nations.</p>
<p>Tribal nations are part of the family of governments in the U.S., along with the federal and state governments. There are <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/01/30/2020-01707/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of">574 federally recognized sovereign tribal nations</a> that have a nation-to-nation relationship with the U.S. government via the trust relationship. They are located in 35 states on 334 reservations. Tribal lands total 100 million acres.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.ncai.org/tribalnations/introduction/Indian_Country_101_Updated_February_2019.pdf">National Congress of American Indians</a>, the trust responsibility covers two significant interrelated areas: </p>
<p>– Protecting tribal property and assets that the U.S. government holds in trust for the benefit of tribal nations. </p>
<p>– Guaranteeing tribal lands and resources as a base for distinct tribal cultures, including water for irrigation, access to fish and game and income from natural resource development.</p>
<p>The term “Indian Country” is a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual-677-indian-country-defined">legal designation of tribal lands</a>. It is also a philosophical definition of where we as Indigenous people are from. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1343293404642471936"}"></div></p>
<h2>Native nations and the Interior Department</h2>
<p>Indian Country and the Interior Department have had a history fraught with controversy that makes this nomination particularly powerful. </p>
<p>One of the most significant issues has been the agency’s <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/jmd/legacy/2014/05/08/houserept-102-499-1992.pdf">long-standing mismanagement</a> of Indian lands on behalf of hundreds of thousands of individual Native Americans since the late 1880s. In 2009, the Obama administration negotiated a US$3.4 billion settlement in a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/archive/us-settles-historic-native-american-lawsuit">long-running class-action lawsuit</a> against the Interior Department. Elise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Nation, brought the suit on behalf of more than 250,000 plaintiffs. </p>
<p>A current issue is the struggle over <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2021/02/04/first-oak-flat-court-hearing-follows-2-day-prayer-vigil/6653392002/">Oak Flat</a>, a sacred Apache location in southern Arizona that is about to be mined for copper. The site is both culturally and archaeologically significant. Several different groups are suing to prevent mining there, and members of Congress have <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/chairman-grijalva-sen-sanders-introduce-bills-to-prevent-mining-activities-on-sacred-apache-tribal-land-given-away-in-2015-defense-bill">introduced legislation</a> to block the federal government from transferring title to the land to mining companies.</p>
<p>Another example is the struggle over the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/21/dakota-access-pipeline-joe-biden-indigenous-environment">Dakota Access Pipeline</a>, which members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other water protectors argue <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/09/dapl-dakota-sitting-rock-sioux/499178/">threatens Native burial sites and water supplies</a>. Still another controversy is the Trump administration’s decision to shrink the <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/environment/533374-native-americans-push-biden-to-restore-us">Bears Ears National Monument</a> in Utah, which protects sites that are <a href="https://bearsearscoalition.org/ancestral-and-modern-day-land-users/">sacred to more than 20 tribes and pueblos</a>. President Biden is <a href="https://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2021/01/25/president-joe-bidens/">reviewing the Bears Ears decision</a>, and tribes and environmental advocates are urging him to <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/biden-holds-key-to-dakota-access-pipelines-fate-after-ruling">shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CKh0N8yn_xq","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Beyond these high-profile cases, Interior Department actions affect many other facets of tribal governance. For example, the <a href="https://www.bia.gov/">Bureau of Indian Affairs</a> oversees tribal gaming compacts and right-of-way infrastructure decisions for projects that cross Native lands. </p>
<p>Many of the agency’s resource stewardship activities also affect tribes. The department recently approved a <a href="https://usbr.gov/newsroom/newsrelease/detail.cfm?RecordID=66103">drought contingency plan</a> for the Colorado River that will impose water conservation requirements on multiple states, counties and tribes. And resource development proposals often affect <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-topical-nature/2021/1/22/187818-controversial-oak-flat-mine-project-moves-closer-to-reality/">lands that are important to Native Americans</a> even if they are not officially part of a reservation, but are traditional homelands or sacred spaces. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Since the trust relationship includes a relationship between governments, all federal agencies must fulfill it. President Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/26/memorandum-on-tribal-consultation-and-strengthening-nation-to-nation-relationships/">issued a Memorandum</a> on Tribal Consultation and Strengthening the Nation-to-Nation Relationships on Jan. 26. This policy statement, which builds on and expands similar declarations from Presidents Clinton and Obama, has been <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/biden-reaffirms-tribal-sovereignty">well received in Indian Country</a>. </p>
<p>If Haaland is confirmed, Biden’s memo will require her to submit a detailed implementation plan and progress reports to the Office of Management and Budget. Tribal consultations are already <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-announces-series-tribal-consultations-recognition-importance-nation-nation">planned</a>. Policy experts expect that overall, Haaland will work to restore tribal lands, address climate change – which is significantly affecting Indigenous people – and safeguard natural and cultural resources. The <a href="https://joebiden.com/tribalnations/">Biden-Harris Plan for Tribal Nations</a> outlines this agenda.</p>
<h2>Indigenous issues are American issues</h2>
<p>I believe that as secretary of the interior, Haaland will focus on issues that are important to all Americans, not just Indigenous people. Recent surveys show that a majority of Americans think the federal government should do more to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/">combat climate change and protect the environment</a>. “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/27/deb-haaland-interview-interior-secretary-native-americans#">I’ll be fierce for all of us, for our planet, and all of our protected land</a>,” Haaland said when her nomination was announced.</p>
<p>For Native Americans, seeing people who look like us and are from where we come from in some of the highest elected and appointed offices in the U.S. demonstrates inclusion. Indian Country finally has a seat at the table. The gravity of this position is not lost on Haaland, and I expect that she will make a difference for all Americans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Traci Morris (Chickasaw Nation) is an individual Indian member of the National Congress of the American Indian. She is President of the Phoenix Indian Center Board of Directors and a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society's Board of Directors.</span></em></p>If confirmed, US Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico would be the first Native American to run the agency that interacts with tribal nations. But her agenda extends far beyond Indian Country.Traci Morris, Executive Director, American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1500282020-11-23T13:17:56Z2020-11-23T13:17:56ZBiden’s ambitious energy plan faces headwinds, but can move the US forward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370335/original/file-20201119-17-70q74a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C1800%2C1185&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fast electric vehicle charging stations at a rest stop on Interstate 95 in Maryland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Tg41rW">Earth and Main/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President-elect Joe Biden calls climate change <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">an existential threat</a> to America’s environment, health, national security and economy, and has promised a clean energy revolution to counter it. Biden has pledged that on his first day in office he will <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paris-climate-accord-biden-rejoin-president/">bring the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Agreement</a>. He also is expected to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/climate/biden-climate.html">restore numerous environmental protections</a> that the Trump administration has weakened or revoked, and to <a href="https://www.arctictoday.com/with-a-biden-win-the-window-for-oil-drilling-in-alaskas-arctic-refuge-is-closing/">cancel oil and gas leasing</a> in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.</p>
<p>Beyond damage repair, Biden has <a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/">big plans for American energy</a>. In my view, not all of them are realistic. Yet their actual purpose may be as starting points for negotiation. Based on my experience analyzing the U.S. energy industry, I see three factors that will influence what his administration can achieve.</p>
<p>First, the election did not produce a “green wave” of support, so Biden does not have a clear mandate for sweeping change in this sector. Second, Biden is no progressive firebrand, and it is unclear <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-biden-senate-record-controversies-20190318-story.html">how hard he will fight</a> for all his energy policy goals. Third, depending on the outcome of the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/here-are-the-key-dates-in-the-georgia-us-senate-runoff-elections.html">Georgia Senate runoffs in January</a>, Democrats may not control the Senate. But it is important to note that a Republican Senate would not necessarily spell doom for progress on energy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ku7uZ0Gok2g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This 2019 campaign video outlines Joe Biden’s plan for a clean energy revolution.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Policies and politics</h2>
<p>The centerpiece of Biden’s energy and climate proposals is a call for investing US$1.7 trillion over 10 years to promote a <a href="https://buildbackbetter.com/priorities/climate-change/">portfolio of clean energy technologies</a>. It would support advancing electric vehicles, building a national vehicle charging network, accelerating the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/science-innovation/electric-power/smart-grid">smart grid</a> and battery storage, scaling up tax credits for renewable technologies and nurturing next-generation energy sources like hydrogen and advanced nuclear power plants. </p>
<p>Other key plans involve upgrading millions of public and commercial buildings to make them more energy efficient; providing public transport options for every American city with 100,000 or more residents; and hiring up to 250,000 workers to locate, plug and reclaim tens of thousands of <a href="https://www.abandonedmines.gov/">abandoned oil, gas, coal and hard rock mines</a> in dozens of states. </p>
<p>This partial list shows how broad and diverse Biden’s agenda is. While Biden insists it is <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/21498236/joe-biden-green-new-deal-debate">not based on the Green New Deal</a>, it embraces some clear progressive elements, such as achieving zero-carbon power generation in 15 years and installing <a href="https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/07/10/biden-sanders-task-force-calls-for-installing-500-million-solar-modules-in-next-five-years/">500 million solar panels by 2025</a>. </p>
<p>How will Congress respond? As one indicator, the Senate is currently considering a <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/murkowski-not-giving-up-on-senate-clean-energy-bill-vote-before-the-end-o/585710/">large energy bill</a> that focuses on efficiency and energy research and development, including renewables and nuclear power. Sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., <a href="https://www.energy.senate.gov/services/files/09AF16B7-1920-4C22-96E2-26039A24B55D">S.2657</a> involves less investment and a smaller government role than Biden favors, but has received a muted reception.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pump jack in New Mexico" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370337/original/file-20201119-15-wkqin5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pump jack on federal land in Roswell, New Mexico. Biden has pledged to end new leasing for oil and gas production on U.S. public lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Lt9HCx">BLM New Mexico/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even a bill to make the national electric grid more secure and reliable, which would seem like a win for both parties, is likely to be a battleground. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/why-cant-congress-even-pass-an-infrastructure-bill/361906/">Experience since the early 2010s</a> shows that the GOP will resist any infrastructure legislation with provisions for <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/01/house-infrastructure-bill-347355">dealing with climate change</a>, which includes grid modernization. </p>
<p>Other opposition could come from a number of the 31 Republican-controlled state legislatures, which have significant influence over infrastructure projects within their borders. Biden also could face challenges from progressive Democrats who don’t want to compromise with Republicans. </p>
<p>If this agenda were divided into a number of smaller bills, parts of it might find traction with the GOP. Continued tax credits for solar and wind installations, and possibly for purchases of electric vehicles, could draw support from legislators representing states like Texas, Iowa and Nevada where these industries are big employers. Energy R&D partnerships with private firms would also stand a reasonable chance. </p>
<p>Yet such measures will not achieve the big goals Biden has in mind. Major progress may require winning the Senate in 2022 and retaining Democratic control of the House of Representatives, as well as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/15/934586955/house-democrats-dissect-what-went-wrong-and-how-to-rebound-from-losses">bridging divisions among Democrats</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370343/original/file-20201119-13-a7x824.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee, supports an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy that includes fossil fuels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/xYEudh">NASA HQ/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What Biden can do without Congress</h2>
<p>Biden also can <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/08/climate/biden-climate.html">do a lot with executive orders</a>. To begin with, he can rescind Trump’s orders <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-to-issue-executive-orders-seeking-to-speed-up-oil-and-gas-projects/2019/04/09/4949e74e-5ae2-11e9-9625-01d48d50ef75_story.html">promoting fossil fuels</a>; tighten limits on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-natural-gas-industry-is-leaking-way-more-methane-than-previously-thought-heres-why-that-matters-98918">fugitive methane emissions</a> from oil and gas wells, refineries and other sources; and raise fuel economy standards for motor vehicles. </p>
<p>Other potential targets include new energy efficiency standards for consumer goods and industrial equipment; new electric vehicle purchase requirements for government fleets; and directives for federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and promote electricity from noncarbon sources. Biden has made clear that he will also require federal agencies to address <a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/">environmental and energy justice</a> matters, such as increased pollution burdens and higher energy costs in areas where poorer families and people of color live.</p>
<p>Biden served for 36 years in the Senate, and has said that he <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/506303-progressives-wary-as-biden-talks-compromise-with-gop">expects to compromise on his goals</a> and hopes that respect from GOP colleagues will allow for give on the other side. He also knows that energy is a key national security issue and that exports of oil and natural gas give the U.S. an important degree of geopolitical sway. </p>
<p><iframe id="0Ncf7" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/0Ncf7/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>I expect that, given his pragmatism, Biden will be reluctant to join progressives in demonizing the oil industry, which supplies nearly all fuel for the U.S. military. Nor does he likely believe, as he shouldn’t, that over 50% of the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/electricity.php#:%7E:text=In%202021%2C%20the%20forecast%20natural,increases%20to%2025%25%20in%202021">country’s power generation</a> can be switched from natural gas (39%) and coal (20%) to noncarbon sources in 15 years. This type of timeline is useful to show what’s needed to avoid the worst climate impacts. But as a realist and seasoned negotiator, Biden likely views such a schedule as a starting point.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>All things considered, the Biden administration should be able to make progress on lowering greenhouse gas emissions and advancing noncarbon energy. Movement is likely to be incremental at first, but with gathering momentum. This will please some and enrage others. </p>
<p>It would be wrong to underestimate either Biden’s experience or the difficulties he faces. One point in his favor is that the pandemic has made the public more receptive to government spending at high levels. Another is that Americans – including a majority of Republicans – increasingly <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/">support government action on climate change</a>. Harnessing this consensus could help Biden advance his energy goals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott L. Montgomery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joe Biden has sweeping plans for a clean energy revolution. Congress will be a big speed bump, but it can’t block everything.Scott L. Montgomery, Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1441712020-10-06T12:19:39Z2020-10-06T12:19:39ZThe 2020 elections will determine which voices dominate public land debates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361716/original/file-20201005-18-ostdyg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C3216%2C2127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Utah's Cottonwood Canyon is a popular hiking destination on federal land.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/2jGY8Cm">BLM</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Presidential elections are anxious times for federal land agencies and the people they serve. The <a href="https://www.blm.gov/">Bureau of Land Management</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">National Park Service</a>, <a href="https://fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> and <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/">U.S. Forest Service</a> manage more than <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf">a quarter of the nation’s land</a>, which means that a new president can literally reshape the American landscape. </p>
<p>Federal influence is particularly significant in the Western U.S. Across the 11 states from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast, the federal government owns <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42346.pdf">more than 45% of all land</a>. In Alaska it owns over 60%. </p>
<p>Voters have a striking choice this year. President Donald Trump entered office committed to the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/stephen-bannon-cpac-speech.html">deconstruction of the administrative state</a>.” His administration raced to reduce environmental planning and regulations and expand private development in pursuit of “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-unleashing-american-energy-dominance/">energy dominance</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing federally-controlled lands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361732/original/file-20201005-22-1qmtq43.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. government controls many types of protected land and subsurface minerals such as oil and gas, mainly in Western states.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_lands#/media/File:Map_of_all_U.S._Federal_Land.jpg">BLM/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast, Vice President Biden’s campaign proposals for public lands remain fairly broad, but are largely consistent with the Obama administration’s priorities. The most significant difference is Biden’s pledge to <a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/#">end new fossil fuel leasing on public lands</a>.</p>
<p>How would each candidate fulfill these promises? As I explain in my new book, “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/this-land-is-my-land-9780197500699?cc=us&lang=en&">This Land Is My Land: Rebellion in the West</a>,” public lands are a microcosm of today’s polarized American politics. </p>
<p>On the right, mainstream conservatives and industrial corporations want <a href="https://theconversation.com/interior-secretary-zinke-invokes-teddy-roosevelt-as-model-but-his-public-land-policies-dont-84546">reduced regulation and increased resource development</a>, while a more militantly anti-federal element of the Republican Party demands an <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-points-to-more-dangerous-malheur-style-standoffs-68134">end to public land ownership</a> altogether. On the left, mainstream Democrats want carefully regulated land management with <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2363781/what-election-meant-public-lands">increased margins of environmental protection</a>, but a vocal progressive wing is demanding that the federal government <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/beyond-green-new-deal-another-climate-cause-dividing-democrats-n996541">keep its fossil fuels in the ground</a>. These tensions raise questions about how far each candidate would go.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1309336838549712896"}"></div></p>
<h2>Republicans: Less regulation, more development</h2>
<p>Since Ronald Reagan ran 40 years ago as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/04/even-sagebrush-rebel-ronald-reagan-couldnt-change-federal-land-use-in-the-west/">self-proclaimed</a> “<a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/a-look-back-at-the-first-sagebrush-rebellion">sagebrush rebel</a>” who supported turning control of public lands back to Western states, Republicans have coalesced around a set of <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/open-business">common public land priorities</a>. They include reducing federal regulation, limiting the scope of environmental reviews and increasing natural resource development. </p>
<p>This approach has drawn support from natural resource industries, resource-dependent communities and a growing body of <a href="https://mslegal.org/">public interest law firms</a>, <a href="https://www.perc.org/">think tanks</a>, <a href="https://www.alec.org/">advocacy groups</a>, <a href="https://www.charleskochfoundation.org/">foundations</a> and <a href="https://www.freedomworks.org/about/about-freedomworks">political action committees</a>. Their core libertarian conviction is that reducing government leads to prosperity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protest signs in snow with protesters in background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361721/original/file-20201005-16-1gulec5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of an anti-government militia occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in January 2016 to protest the jailing of two ranchers for arson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-an-anti-government-militia-stand-guard-outside-news-photo/503852284?adppopup=true">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Trump administration has championed these priorities through actions that include shrinking several national monuments to <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-plan-to-dismantle-national-monuments-comes-with-steep-cultural-and-ecological-costs-77075">expand oil leasing</a>; preparing to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/17/903239366/trump-administration-sets-plan-for-oil-drilling-in-arctic-refuge">open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil production</a>; and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/nepa-modernization/">narrowing environmental reviews of major federal actions</a>. The full impact of these actions is hard to assess, since many face challenges in court, where the administration has <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup">fared poorly</a>. But their theme is clear: Public lands are <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/zinke-says-interior-should-be-a-partner-with-oil-companies">open for business</a>. </p>
<p>As part of this effort, the Trump administration <a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-bureau-of-land-management-headquarters-to-colorado-wont-be-good-for-public-lands-126990">moved the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters</a> from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colorado. The agency has <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1062289841">struggled to staff the new building</a>, which it shares with several oil and gas companies. </p>
<p>A vocal element of the Republican Party challenges the federal government’s authority to own and manage public lands at all. Some advocates have engaged in <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/malheur-occupation-oregon-ammon-bundy-public-lands-essay">armed confrontations</a> with federal authorities. Several Western states have <a href="http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/files/2014/10/Lawton.pdf">enacted legislation</a> over the past decade demanding that the federal government transfer ownership of public lands and mineral rights to them.</p>
<p>President Trump has catered to this extreme wing while stopping short of meeting its explicit demands. He signaled support by appointing conservative activist William Perry Pendley as the Bureau of Land Management’s functional acting director in July 2019 – a step that a federal court in Montana recently <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/518376-court-removes-pendley-from-role-as-public-lands-chief">ruled was illegal</a> because it bypassed a confirmation hearing. Pendley was known for <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/author/william-perry-pendley/">staunch opposition to public land ownership</a> and years of litigation over public land management. </p>
<p>The president also has pardoned controversial figures who are embraced by opponents of public land authority, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/arpaio-pardon-could-encourage-more-civil-rights-violations-82813">former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio</a> and two <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/10/627653866/president-trump-pardons-ranchers-dwight-and-steven-hammond-over-arson">Oregon ranchers</a> convicted of arson on federal property. </p>
<p>Despite his administration’s losses in court, I expect that if President Trump is reelected he will continue down this path of deregulation, resource development and deference to conservative Western interests, with occasional gestures of support to more radical conservatives.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Clashing views in the battle over the fate of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Democrats: Scientific management with limited development</h2>
<p>Recent Democratic presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, have <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-2127-9.html">championed federal environmental laws</a> that guide public land management, such as the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. Democratic administrations have emphasized scientific monitoring and regulatory oversight while still supporting energy development and other commercial resource uses of public lands. </p>
<p>Vice President Biden’s long <a href="https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/joe-biden">environmental record</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/us/politics/joe-biden-trump.html">campaign pledges</a> suggest
that he will continue this approach. Biden has promised to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-biden-square-off-over-environmental-regulations-11594917709">reverse the Trump administration’s deregulatory efforts</a>, <a href="https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/heres-how-the-presidential-candidates-public-lands-plans-stack-up">restore national monument boundaries</a> and manage energy development on public lands in ways that <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060477457">promote wind and solar energy</a> and gradually <a href="https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/#">phase out fossil fuel development</a>. </p>
<p>But a Biden administration would face tensions within the Democratic Party as well. Progressives are calling for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html">more dramatic action to slow climate change</a>, including <a href="https://soto.house.gov/media/press-releases/soto-ocasio-cortez-sanders-merkley-unveil-bill-ban-fracking-nationwide">bans on hydraulic fracturing</a> for oil and gas production and on new oil, gas and coal leases on public lands. Biden has signaled <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/">strong support</a> for this agenda, but insists that hydraulic fracturing and fossil fuel development <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-biden-fracking/u-s-presidential-hopeful-biden-says-he-would-not-ban-fracking-idUSKBN25R2NI">will continue on existing leases</a>. </p>
<p>A Biden administration, then, would likely seek to <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/docs/clean_energy_record.pdf">restore President Obama’s public lands legacy</a> and push beyond it with tighter limits on fossil fuel production. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Then-Vice President Joseph Biden visits Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, July 27, 2010.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everybody loves the outdoors</h2>
<p>These sharply different visions can obscure the fact that there is substantial commitment to public lands, especially as places for hunting, fishing, camping and other recreational uses. This consensus was evident when Congress passed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Outdoors_Act">Great American Outdoors Act of 2020</a> in July with strong bipartisan support. With an eye on election polls, President Trump bragged that signing the bill made him the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-environmental-accomplishments-people-florida-jupiter-fl/">greatest environmental president since George Washington</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>As I see it, this bill was popular because it did not address controversial questions like regulation or energy development. Instead it provided billions of dollars for maintaining roads, trails, visitor centers and other public land infrastructure. It also guaranteed permanent funding for the <a href="https://www.lwcfcoalition.com/about-lwcf">Land and Water Conservation Fund</a>, which uses money from federal fossil fuel royalties to protect valuable lands and waters from development.</p>
<p>That pairing suggests that public land ownership and fossil fuel development will both be part of the next administration. But the election will determine how these resources will be managed, and who will have the most influence over this process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James R. Skillen is a member of the Public Lands Foundation.</span></em></p>Republicans and Democrats take sharply different positions on managing US public lands, but there’s solid consensus on some issues.James R. Skillen, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Calvin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269902020-01-08T12:19:21Z2020-01-08T12:19:21ZMoving Bureau of Land Management headquarters to Colorado won’t be good for public lands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308699/original/file-20200106-123403-1739qkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2100%2C1405&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sheep grazing on BLM land near Shoshone, Idaho.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/NQ6N1s">BLM/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration has pursued many controversial goals in managing U.S. public lands, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">shrinking national monuments</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-administration-is-scrapping-a-collaborative-sage-grouse-protection-plan-to-expand-oil-and-gas-drilling-108398">cutting back protection for threatened species</a>. Its latest disruptive move targets the government employees who oversee these resources.</p>
<p>The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management oversees 245 million acres of public <a href="https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/BLM%20Administrative%20Units%202018%2036X40.pdf">lands</a>, mainly in the western U.S. The Trump administration is moving BLM’s headquarters from Washington, D.C. to an office building in Grand Junction, Colorado that also houses oil and gas companies. Along with increasing energy development, reducing regulations and increasing access to public lands, agency officials call this move one of their top <a href="https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/bernhardt-to-guvs-expect-decision-soon-on-blm-headquarters-move/article_e0fbbf80-8c07-11e9-bd94-20677ce06c14.html">priorities</a>.</p>
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<p>More than 95% of BLM employees <a href="https://publicland.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Dismantling-BLM.pdf">work in the West</a>. So why is it a top priority to move senior staff away from Washington, D.C., where policy decisions are made? And why are <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08102019/blm-move-western-states-federal-land-control-mining-sagebrush-rebel-interior">conservation groups</a> and <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/bureau-of-land-management-dozens-of-former-blm-officials-denounce-moving-headquarters-out-of-dc">former BLM officials</a> strongly opposed? </p>
<p>As scholars who study <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-1895-8.html">BLM</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XcJV-xEAAAAJ&hl=en">public land management</a>, we see this move as a radical transfer of control over national resources to Western states. Congress has tasked the agency with managing public lands “so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">present and future needs of the American people</a>.” In our view, the headquarters move runs counter to this goal.</p>
<h2>The interests of ‘private government’</h2>
<p>As the Trump administration likes to point out, BLM lands are <a href="https://www.blm.gov/office/national-office/hq-move-west">almost exclusively in the West</a>. The agency’s <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">governing statute</a> directs it to manage those lands in ways that will protect their “scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values,” and will support land and wildlife conservation. They are also open for outdoor recreation and extractive uses, such as grazing, mining, oil and gas development and timber harvesting. </p>
<p>Up through the late 1960s, the federal government encouraged “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_rule">home rule</a>” of these resources, meaning that rural communities, natural resource industries and Western state governments controlled public land policy. Political scientist Philip Foss described this approach as “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Administration-Grazing-Public-Domain/dp/B0000CKNWQ">private government</a>” – a system in which interest groups effectively controlled agencies charged with overseeing and regulating public assets. And those groups overwhelmingly prioritized extractive land uses over conservation.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/306738/original/file-20191212-85417-11d7skf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Original BLM logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/">www.flickr.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308286/original/file-20191228-11951-dvgxa1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contemporary BLM emblem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/f0e9209c7b4dd8938f252c1f206a87f1">www.flickr.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>BLM’s first emblem, which it used from 1952 to 1964, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/history/chap2.htm">reflected this philosophy</a>. It depicted a miner, a rancher, an engineer, a logger and a surveyor standing on the American frontier with Conestoga wagons behind them and an industrial landscape ahead. </p>
<p>In 1964 the agency created a <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US-DOI-BLM-logo.png">new emblem</a> that depicted mountains, meadows, a river and tree. BLM continued to encourage natural resource development, but it also gradually came to serve an increasingly broad constituency. Once derided by conservationists as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mines,” it became what former Arizona Governor and Interior Secretary Bruce <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060040203">Babbitt</a> would see as an agency also concerned with landscapes, monuments and conservation. </p>
<h2>Constituencies in a changing West</h2>
<p>This evolution has angered some conservatives in the West and fueled <a href="https://theconversation.com/malheur-occupation-in-oregon-whose-land-is-it-really-52741">armed confrontations</a> between public lands users, such as rancher <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/bundy-brothers-acquitted-in-takeover-of-oregon-wildlife-refuge.html">Cliven Bundy</a> and BLM staff. In what we view as an egregious example of catering to some Western interests, acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley stated in November 2019 that his agency’s law enforcement professionals would <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061644675">defer to their local counterparts</a>, apparently even on federal land. </p>
<p>But although Western land management often is cast as a standoff between competing federal and regional priorities, in reality the issue is much more complicated and nuanced. There also are tensions in the West between residents who value public lands as sites for resource extraction, others who see economic opportunity fueled by a growing recreation economy and still others who appreciate these areas for their ecological value and <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/amenity-values">intrinsic beauty</a>.</p>
<h2>A self-inflicted brain drain</h2>
<p>The job of BLM leaders in Washington, D.C. is to make decisions that respond to directives from the president and Congress. Moving them west won’t change that dynamic – but it could impoverish agency decision making in several ways. </p>
<p>First, senior agency staff will have more difficulty communicating with Congress. Second, the White House and Congress will still make broad policy decisions about public lands, but they will do it with less input from knowledgeable and experienced career professionals. </p>
<p>And by forcing government employees to either move to the West or find other jobs, moving the BLM headquarters will effectively gut its staff without running afoul of civil service protections. White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2019/08/05/usda-science-agencies-relocation-may-have-violated-law-inspector-general-report-says/">admitted as much</a> in an August 2019 speech:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“By simply saying to people, ‘You know what, we’re going to take you outside the bubble, outside the Beltway, outside this liberal haven of Washington, D.C., and move you out in the real part of the country,‘ and they quit — what a wonderful way to sort of streamline government.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Mulvaney was describing a decision earlier in 2019 to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759053717/critics-of-relocating-usda-research-agencies-point-to-brain-drain">relocate two U.S Department of Agriculture research agencies</a> – the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture – from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City. More than 60% of affected staffers <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/usda-researchers-kansas-city-relocate/index.html">refused to relocate and quit</a>, leading to a loss of expertise for both organizations. </p>
<p>We expect BLM’s move and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061714579">resulting staff losses</a> will similarly <a href="https://publicland.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Dismantling-BLM.pdf">diminish the agency’s capacity</a> to manage complex policy decisions. At the request of Democratic members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office is <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/bureau-of-land-management-decision-to-relocate-blms-headquarters-under-investigation">investigating</a> whether BLM has adequately justified moving its headquarters. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/308700/original/file-20200106-123403-1uyg2ul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buyers at the Outdoor Retailer & Snow Show Jan. 30, 2019, in Denver. The outdoor industry is a growing revenue source and pro-conservation voice in Western states.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Outdoor-Retailer-Show/fc7313feec5146218f1a32e3b549a482/18/0">AP Photo/David Zalubowski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diluting federal oversight of public lands</h2>
<p>President Trump’s public land policies align with coordinated challenges to federal authority, known as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Federal-Land-Western-Anger-Environmental/dp/0700608044">sagebrush rebellions</a>, that have been part of the American West for more than a century. Trump campaigned in 2016 on a platform that called for transferring control over public lands to the states. He later pardoned Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, whose conviction for committing arson on federal lands <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061792435">helped spark the 2016 armed occupation</a> of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.</p>
<p>Undermining the BLM’s professional capacity and returning public lands management to “home rule” fits naturally into this list. But we believe it is ultimately counterproductive. It will damage careers, impede democratic deliberation and undermine experienced oversight of public lands that belong to all Americans. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth receives funding from USGS. He is affiliated with the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University, which receives funding from the BLM Office of Wildland Fire. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James R. Skillen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Do public lands in the West belong to Westerners, or all Americans? Moving a federal agency’s headquarters from Washington, DC to Colorado is the latest skirmish in a longtime struggle.John Freemuth, Cecil D. Andrus Endowed Chair for Environment and Public Lands and University Distinguished Professor, Boise State UniversityJames R. Skillen, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Calvin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1207302019-12-04T13:30:08Z2019-12-04T13:30:08ZTrump’s border wall threatens an Arizona oasis with a long, diverse history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305009/original/file-20191203-67011-kxgj89.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C0%2C6000%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The waters of Quitobaquito in southern Arizona have attracted diverse visitors for thousands of years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few hundred yards from the Mexican border in southern Arizona lies a quiet pond, about the size of two football fields, called Quitobaquito. About 10 miles to the east, heavy machinery <a href="https://twitter.com/LaikenJordahl/status/1187803734090244096">grinds up the earth and removes vegetation</a> as construction of President Trump’s vaunted border wall advances toward the oasis. </p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2047830484_Jared_Orsi">historian</a> and have studied Quitobaquito for six years. When I first started writing about this area, it was remote and little known, even though the land is part of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/orpi/index.htm">Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument</a>. But for the last few months, the park has <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/11/769193107/border-wall-construction-in-arizona-bulldozes-cactus-columns">headlined national news</a>.</p>
<p>This spot is an occasional crossing point for transborder migrants, and some of the wall’s first stretches will traverse the national monument within steps of Quitobaquito. Many observers fear that the thirty-foot wall with nighttime floodlighting will <a href="https://wgntv.com/2019/09/28/border-wall-could-destroy-natural-wildlife-refuge-in-southern-arizona-environmentalist-says/">harm wildlife</a>, <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-topical-nature/2019/9/4/157554-new-border-wall-could-further-deplete-groundwater-supplies/">lower the water table</a> and <a href="https://media.azpm.org/master/document/2019/9/20/pdf/orpi2019bdraftreport07252019b_final_redacted_reduced.pdf">destroy archaeological treasures</a>. Crowds are visiting the site to protest the <a href="https://news.azpm.org/p/news-articles/2019/11/12/161553-hundreds-protest-border-wall-construction-through-national-monument/">concrete and steel barrier</a>.</p>
<p>Trump’s promise to build a wall began as a rhetorical flourish during the 2016 presidential campaign. But in May 2019, his administration announced that it would <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/05/15/2019-10079/determination-pursuant-to-section-102-of-the-illegal-immigration-reform-and-immigrant-responsibility">waive 41 laws</a> to construct a high barrier. I believe this project could destroy an area with a diverse, multicultural history that challenges today’s border debates.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305015/original/file-20191203-67028-1561qf3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Border wall construction in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, photographed in November 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Erasing cultures</h2>
<p>In my research on Quitobaquito, I’ve noticed that while its waters have attracted a wide array of peoples for more than 10,000 years, each wave of newcomers tends to erase the evidence of those who came before them. </p>
<p>Beginning in the late seventeenth century, Spanish missionaries tried to entice native peoples in this area to abandon their traditions in favor of Christian agricultural life. Then, in the early twentieth century, Americans confined indigenous peoples to reservations. For most of the 20th century, the National Park Service managed this swath of southern Arizona as an uninhabited wilderness. </p>
<p>These actions have erased Quitobaquito’s history. The border project is the latest phase of this rewrite.</p>
<h2>A farm that straddled the line</h2>
<p>Here’s some back story on the diverse cultures that have occupied this oasis. </p>
<p>Around 1860, a newcomer from Georgia named Andrew Dorsey dammed and enlarged the pond, and a small agricultural settlement grew at Quitobaquito. M.G. Levy, the German-educated son of a Jewish immigrant, kept a small store there, employing a French shopkeeper and doing business with American and Mexican suppliers. Chinese and Japanese migrants stopped there after crossing the border from Mexico to evade America’s Asian exclusion laws.</p>
<p>Sometime in the 1880s, Luis Orozco brought his family to Quitobaquito. They identified as members of the nomadic indigenous group Hia C’ed O’odham, who had moved throughout southern Arizona and northern Sonora long before there was a border. But their surname attested to generations of colonial Hispanicization of the region’s native peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300943/original/file-20191108-194624-1pstu3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Orozco homestead, which spanned the U.S.-Mexico border in what became Organ Pipe National Monument, was demolished by the National Park Service in the late 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Park Service</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For three generations, the Orozcos homesteaded a plot that spanned the U.S.-Mexico border. They tended livestock, built structures and dug wells. Using a network of ditches, they planted and irrigated melons, figs, pomegranates and other non-native species. Like everyone else, they cut trees for firewood, fencing, and construction and hunted wild animals for food and materials. Nobody got rich, but they got by.</p>
<h2>Whose land?</h2>
<p>Over time, almost everybody but the Orozcos drifted away from Quitobaquito. But the family still lived there in 1937, when the U.S. government designated Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Luis’s son Jose Juan and grandson Jim were farming on public lands, but they could not prove title to the land or document their citizenship in either the U.S. or Mexico. </p>
<p>National Park Service officials believed that the ramshackle Orozco homestead undermined the wilderness ideals that had inspired designation of the area as a national monument. They harassed the family for cutting wood, constructing buildings and hunting deer – longstanding practices that now violated park rules. </p>
<p>After an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in the mid-1940s, the agency began to fence the border to keep out Mexican cattle. The barrier severed the Orozco homestead. </p>
<p>Through a white rancher friend, Jim Orozco enlisted the aid of U.S. Sen. Carl Hayden, an Arizona Republican, who brokered a compromise: The Park Service built a gate allowing the family to move back and forth across the border. A decade later, in 1957, the government bought the Orozcos’ interest for $13,000 and then bulldozed their buildings.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/300942/original/file-20191108-194661-1v0o4vb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grave site of Lorenzo Sestier, a French shopkeeper who worked at M.G. Levy’s general store in the late-1800s, overlooks Quitobaquito.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jared Orsi</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 1970s, national sentiment started to place greater value on historic preservation – especially of ordinary, or vernacular, landscapes like the Orozcos’ homestead. In response, Organ Pipe National Monument began sponsoring archeological and historical studies of Quitobaquito. </p>
<p>The park restored the graves of the Orozcos and other indigenous people who had lived at the oasis. Today it works with Hia C’ed O’odham and Tohono O’odham tribes to provide access to Quitobaquito and the national monument for ceremonial purposes and collection of plants. </p>
<h2>History resists caricatures</h2>
<p>Today, iron vehicle barriers and the dust and rumble of Border Patrol trucks intrude on visitors’ experience at Quitobaquito. The site lacks signs or historical markers, and the park’s visitor center does not detail the pond’s history. The Orozcos’ story is hard to discern. </p>
<p>But I believe Quitobaquito’s history is worth preserving. It reveals an American past populated by people who do not fit into current rhetorical boxes – Indian homesteaders, families living on both sides of the border, white ranchers who protect indigenous resource use and Republican Senators defending the rights of Arizonans who can’t prove their citizenship. These stories are part of this site – and they are incompatible with a wall.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Orsi receives funding from the National Park Service, but not for the research described in this article. Between 2013 and 2017, he received funding from the National Park Service to write an administrative history of Quitobaquito. Views expressed here are his and not those of the NPS.
</span></em></p>Border wall construction through Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona is encroaching on a site where people from many cultures have interacted for thousands of years.Jared Orsi, Professor of History, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1153502019-06-26T17:34:03Z2019-06-26T17:34:03ZVisiting national parks could change your thinking about patriotism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281271/original/file-20190625-81766-19catjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entry to Mount Rushmore along the Avenue of Flags.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Rushmore_and_Avenue_of_Flags.jpg">Xiao Fang/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I took a post-college job as a seasonal ranger at <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm">Grand Teton National Park</a> 23 years ago, I noticed right away that my “Smokey Bear” hat carried some serious emotional baggage. As I later wrote in my book, “<a href="https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/4492">Reclaiming Nostalgia: Longing for Nature in American Literature</a>,” park visitors saw the hat as an icon of tradition and romance, a symbol of a simpler era long gone. </p>
<p>For many Americans the physical grandeur of parks like Grand Teton, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yose/index.htm">Yosemite</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm">Yellowstone</a> also inspires patriotic pride. Twenty-first-century patriotism is a touchy subject, increasingly claimed by America’s conservative right. But the national park system is designed to be democratic – protecting lands that belong to the public for all to enjoy – and politically neutral. The parks are spaces where love of country can be shared by all. </p>
<p>But some sites send more complex messages. In my new book, “<a href="http://www.unevadapress.com/books/?isbn=9781943859962">Memorials Matter: Emotion, Environment, and Public Memory at American Historical Sites</a>,” I explore how patriotism plays out at sites where education, not recreation, is the priority. To research it I visited seven memorials to see how their structures and natural landscapes inspire patriotism and other emotions. </p>
<p>For me, and I suspect for many, national memorials elicit conflicting feelings: pride in our nation’s achievements, but also guilt, regret or anger over the costs of progress. Patriotism, especially at sites of shame, can be unsettling – and I see this as a good thing. In my view, honestly confronting the darker parts of U.S. history as well as its best moments is good for tourism, for patriotism and for the nation. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1143152914048962560"}"></div></p>
<h2>Whose history?</h2>
<p>Patriotism has roots in the Latin “patriotia,” meaning “fellow countryman.” It’s common to feel patriotic pride in U.S. technological achievements or military strength, but Americans also glory in the diversity and beauty of our natural landscapes. That kind of patriotism, I think, has the potential to be more inclusive, less divisive and more socially and environmentally just. </p>
<p>National memorials can summon more than one kind of patriotism. Take <a href="https://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm">Mount Rushmore</a>, which was designed explicitly to evoke national pride. Tourists walk the Avenue of Flags, marvel at the labor required to carve four U.S. presidents’ faces out of granite and applaud when rangers invite military veterans onstage during visitor programs. Patriotism at Rushmore centers on labor, progress and the “great men” that the site describes as founding, expanding and defending the U.S. </p>
<p>But there are other perspectives. Viewed from the <a href="http://www.ohranger.com/peter-norbeck-scenic-byway">Peter Norbeck Overlook</a>, a short drive from the main site, the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln are tiny elements embedded in the expansive Black Hills region. The Black Hills were and still are a <a href="https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/we-walk-our-ancestors-sacredness-black-hills">sacred place for Lakota peoples</a> that they never willingly relinquished. Viewing Mount Rushmore this way puts those rock faces in context and raises questions about history and justice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281050/original/file-20190624-97808-10m58n2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mt. Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, viewed from the Peter Norbeck Overlook.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jennifer Ladino</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some national monuments conduct reenactments to help visitors relive the past and feel a sense of history and authenticity. At <a href="https://www.nps.gov/gosp/index.htm">Golden Spike National Historic Site</a> in Utah, tourists can view replica steam locomotives and watch a reenactment of driving the spike that completed the first transcontinental railroad.</p>
<p>This park also ties patriotism to technology, labor, unity and progress. But it downplays countless lives lost during construction, including a disproportionate number of <a href="https://www.uscitizenship.info/Chinese-immigration-and-the-Transcontinental-railroad/">Chinese laborers</a>. There’s an implied whiteness to the patriotism here, although those Chinese workers are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/golden-spike-utah-railroad-150th-anniversary.html">receiving belated recognition</a>.</p>
<p>Away from the main complex, however, visitors can see an impressive natural landscape carved by geologic forces. At “Chinaman’s Arch,” they can read about ancient Lake Bonneville, which once covered 20,000 square miles. Against the backdrop of geologic time, human labor and technological power look less impressive. A different feeling of patriotism emerges here that can embrace the physical country all Americans share. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281048/original/file-20190624-97751-1ve7dp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese railroad workers in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, photographed between 1865 and 1869.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005682913/">Alfred Hart/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sites of shame</h2>
<p>Even sites where visitors are meant to feel remorse leave some room for patriotism. But at places like <a href="https://www.nps.gov/manz/index.htm">Manzanar National Historic Site</a> in California – one of 10 camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II – natural and textual cues prevent any easy patriotic reflexes. </p>
<p>Reconstructed guard towers and barracks help visitors perceive the experience of being detained. I could imagine Japanese-Americans’ shame as I entered claustrophobic buildings and touched the rough straw that filled makeshift mattresses. Many visitors doubtlessly associate mountains with adventure and freedom, but some incarcerees saw the nearby Sierra Nevada as <a href="https://hmhbooks.com/shop/books/Farewell-to-Manzanar/9781328742117">barricades reinforcing the camp’s barbed wire fence</a>. </p>
<p>Rangers play up these emotional tensions on their tours. One ranger positioned a group of schoolchildren atop what were once latrines, and asked them: “Will it happen again? We don’t know. We hope not. We have to stand up for what is right.” Instead of a self-congratulatory sense of being a good citizen, Manzanar leaves visitors with unsettling questions and mixed feelings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271849/original/file-20190430-136787-4t3uly.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young tourists experience the humiliating lack of privacy at Manzanar National Historic Site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jennifer Ladino</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Humble patriotism</h2>
<p>Visiting and writing about these sites made me consider what it would take to recast patriotism as collective pride in the United States’ diverse landscapes and peoples. I believe one essential ingredient is compassion. Recent controversies over <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-taking-down-confederate-memorials-is-only-a-first-step-78020">Confederate monuments</a> showed that many Americans were unwilling to imagine how public memorials could be offensive or traumatic for others. </p>
<p>Greater clarity about value systems can also help. Psychologists have found striking differences between the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1137651">moral frameworks</a> that shape liberals’ and conservatives’ views. Conservatives generally prioritize purity, sanctity and loyalty, while liberals tend to value justice in the form of concerns about fairness and harm. In my view, patriotism could bridge the apparent gap between these moral foundations. </p>
<p>My research suggests that visits to memorial sites are helpful for recognizing our interdependence with each other, as inhabitants of a common country. In her recent book, “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374712266">The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks</a>,” Terry Tempest Williams wonders, “What is the relevance of our national parks in the twenty-first century – and how might these public commons bring us back home to a united state of humility?” Places like Manzanar and Golden Spike are part of a common heritage embedded in public lands. It’s our responsibility as citizens to visit these places with both pride and humility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Ladino received funding to support travel and research for her book "Memorials Matter" from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Idaho, the Idaho Humanities Council, and the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. </span></em></p>Patriotism means pride in country, but what are we proud of? A former national park ranger suggests that visiting historic sites can remind Americans of the heritage, good and bad, that they share.Jennifer Ladino, Professor of English, University of IdahoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1148932019-04-09T10:46:41Z2019-04-09T10:46:41ZA defeat on offshore drilling extends the Trump administration’s losing streak in court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268145/original/file-20190408-2924-g9mm40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A polar bear crosses ice In Alaska's Chukchi Sea area, where a recent court ruling bars the Trump administration from greenlighting offshore drilling.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.photolib.noaa.gov/bigs/anim2642.jpg">NOAA/OER/Hidden Ocean 2016:The Chukchi Borderlands </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration’s push to boost fossil fuel extraction has received a major setback. On March 29, Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court for Alaska <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/80%20Order%20granting%20MSJ.pdf">ruled invalid</a> Trump’s order <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-obamas-offshore-drilling-ban-be-trumped-70125">lifting a ban on oil and gas drilling</a> in much of the the Arctic Ocean and along parts of the North Atlantic coast. Gleason held that the relevant law – the 1953 <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title43/pdf/USCODE-2011-title43-chap29-subchapIII-sec1331.pdf">Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act</a> – authorizes presidents to withdraw offshore lands from use for energy development, but not to reverse such decisions by past administrations.</p>
<p>If this ruling is upheld on appeal, it would bolster lawsuits contesting another controversial action by President Trump: Removing some 2 million acres from the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/visit/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears</a> and <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante</a> national monuments in Utah, which were created by Presidents Obama and Clinton respectively under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">Antiquities Act of 1906</a>. </p>
<p>As scholars of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kKkyWUYAAAAJ&hl=en">environmental</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PnjufZ8AAAAJ&hl=en">natural resources</a> law, we believe that in both instances, the Trump administration has misconstrued statutes as affording it powers that Congress never gave to presidents. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268149/original/file-20190408-2924-4yw33a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Outer Continental shelf regions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.boem.gov/Resource-Assessment/">BOEM</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conserving underwater resources</h2>
<p>Congress passed the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish U.S. jurisdiction over this region, which begins three miles offshore and extends for several hundred nautical miles. The law recognizes that the outer continental shelf “is a vital national resource reserve … which should be made available for expeditious and orderly development, subject to environmental safeguards.” </p>
<p>Yet section 12(a) of the statute also authorizes the president to protect and withdraw unleased OCS lands from development. President Dwight Eisenhower used this power to <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-74/pdf/STATUTE-74-PgC48.pdf">withdraw areas of the Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve</a> permanently in 1960. Thirty years later, President George H.W. Bush temporarily blocked new drilling off the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/27/us/bush-cuts-back-areas-off-coasts-open-for-drilling.html">Pacific, Florida and New England coasts</a>.</p>
<p>Most recently, President Obama <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-14/html/2016-30277.htm">permanently withdrew some 3.8 million acres</a> in the Atlantic Ocean and 120 million acres in the Arctic Ocean. Obama’s order barred mineral exploration or production in <a href="https://www.fishermensvoice.com/archives/201702PresidentialMemorandum.html">26 canyon complexes</a> in the Atlantic from Virginia to Canada, protecting vital habitat for marine mammals, deep water corals and other vulnerable wildlife. The Arctic withdrawal banned leasing along <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-201500059/pdf/DCPD-201500059.pdf">much of the northern Alaska coast</a>, which is home to endangered polar bears and bowhead whales, and is one of the planet’s <a href="http://ak.audubon.org/conservation/chukchi-sea">most productive ecosystems</a>.</p>
<p>In April 2017, however, President Trump issued an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/us/politics/national-monuments-energy-drilling.html?module=inline">order revoking Obama’s withdrawals</a>. Environmental organizations immediately challenged Trump’s action, arguing that section 12(a) only authorizes a president to remove lands from development, not to put them back in, and that prior withdrawals could only be revoked by Congress.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/268226/original/file-20190408-2914-lz2l69.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Endangered bowhead whales, like this mother and calf, live almost exclusively in Arctic and subarctic waters with seasonal sea ice coverage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/bowhead-whale">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The limits of presidential power</h2>
<p>Like the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Antiquities Act authorizes the president to reserve public lands to shield them from drilling and mining. The Antiquities Act authority extends to lands “of historic or scientific interest,” which may be reserved as national monuments. But in 2017, Trump announced that he was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/trump-bears-ears.html">shrinking the Bears Ears National Monument</a> by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by about 50%. Months later, the Interior Department <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/lup/94706/154279/188896/_GSENM-KEPA__Executive_Summary-508_r.pdf">released a management plan</a> that opened up much of this land for mining, energy development and other extractive uses.</p>
<p>In her ruling on offshore drilling, Judge Gleason noted that for almost a century, executive branch interpretations have recognized that executive authority to revoke reserved areas must be explicit. In other words, legal advisers have said for decades that presidents can only open up lands for development if the relevant law explicitly gives them that power. Laws such as the <a href="http://www.publiclandsforthepeople.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ORGANIC-ACT-OF-1897.pdf">Forest Service Organic Act of 1897</a> provide both withdrawal and revocation authority. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the government argued that interpreting section 12(a) to bar presidential revocations could allow a president to withdraw the entire outer continental shelf from mineral development, leaving future presidents helpless to do anything other than plead to Congress to undo such action. Judge Gleason responded that past attorneys general have recognized that Congress has previously authorized one president “to tie future Presidents’ hands.” She relied mainly on a 1938 attorney general’s opinion which interpreted the Antiquities Act to preclude presidential revocation of monument designations. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tYN1f23uGzg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Archaeologists and Native Americans say mining threatens cultural treasures on formerly protected land at Bears Ears National Monument.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response, the Trump administration contended that the Antiquities Act was designed to support conservation, while the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act was partly written to promote leasing for extracting natural resources, such as oil and gas. Therefore, federal lawyers asserted, allowing President Trump to revoke President Obama’s withdrawal of offshore lands aligned well with the purposes of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, but not the Antiquities Act. </p>
<p>Judge Gleason rejected this argument as applied to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. Her opinion makes the argument for presidential revocation power even weaker under the Antiquities Act because of its sole focus on conservation.</p>
<h2>Disdain for the law</h2>
<p>On the environment and many other issues, we believe that President Trump and his top officials have shown a marked disregard for the idea that government officials are subject to the law and bound to adhere to it. When their actions have been challenged in court, they have suffered a stunning and ongoing <a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/two-years-overruling-trump">wave of judicial rebukes</a>. </p>
<p>Courts have <a href="http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2017/20171004_docket-317-cv-03804_order-1.pdf">repeatedly found</a> that Trump agency efforts to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/federal-court-reinstates-clean-water-rule-delayed-trump/story?id=57222558">delay Obama-era actions</a> and adopt substitute policies have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/upshot/for-trump-administration-it-has-been-hard-to-follow-the-rules-on-rules.html">failed to adhere to basic procedural requirements</a>. They also have found numerous Trump agency proposals reversing previous administrations’ policies to be <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/district-of-columbia/dcdce/1:2018cv00346/193532/22/">substantively flawed</a>. </p>
<p>In some cases, such as Trump’s effort to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/09/keystone-xl-pipeline-blocked-by-federal-judge-major-blow-trump-administration/?utm_term=.b03361bc21f5">restart work on the Keystone XL Pipeline</a> after Obama halted the project, these shifts ignored evidence supporting the initial actions. In others the government failed to justify its decision to reverse them. And in rulings like Judge Gleason’s, courts have rejected the administration’s efforts to interpret statutes as vesting more power in the executive branch than they actually do. </p>
<p>Congress and the courts have long required executive officials to be transparent and provide reasonable explanations for their decisions, based on relevant statutory factors. Ignoring these requirements may be expedient, but as long as courts perform their assigned oversight role seriously, it will be a losing and counterproductive strategy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alejandro E. Camacho is a member scholar for the Center for Progressive Reform. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert L. Glicksman is a member scholar and a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Progressive Reform.</span></em></p>Can presidents undo decisions by their predecessors to protect federal lands from development? A recent court ruling on offshore drilling says no, and could also affect contested lands in Utah.Alejandro E. Camacho, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Land Environment, and Natural Resources, University of California, IrvineRobert Glicksman, Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1111442019-02-06T11:43:17Z2019-02-06T11:43:17ZGrand Canyon National Park: How a place once called ‘valueless’ became grand<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257352/original/file-20190206-86233-aw2pbd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dawn on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dawn_on_the_S_rim_of_the_Grand_Canyon_(8645178272).jpg">Murray Foubister/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few sights are as instantly recognizable, and few sites speak more fully to American nationalism. Standing on the South Rim in 1903, President Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed it “one of the great sights every American should see.” </p>
<p>It’s true. Every visitor today knows the Grand Canyon as a unique testimony to Earth’s history and an icon of American experience. But visitors may not know why. Probably they don’t know that it was big and annoying long before it was grand and inspiring. Likely, they don’t appreciate that the work of appreciating so strange a scene has been as astonishing as its geological sculpting. Other than a pilgrimage to a sacred site, they may not understand just what they are seeing. </p>
<p>Grand Canyon National Park <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/getinvolved/centennial.htm">celebrated its centennial</a> on Feb. 26, 2019. But it was a long and peculiar way for the canyon to become grand. It’s worth recalling what this has meant. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ezpqDi42pRM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Scientists still don’t know exactly how the Grand Canyon was created, but they do know that its oldest rocks date back more than 1.5 billion years.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘This profitless locality’</h2>
<p>The Grand Canyon was one of the <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330915/how-the-canyon-became-grand-by-stephen-j-pyne/9780140280562/">first North American natural wonders to be discovered by Europeans</a>. In 1541, a party of the Coronado expedition under Captain García López de Cardenas stood on the South Rim, 138 years before explorers found Niagara Falls, 167 before Yellowstone and almost 300 before Yosemite. A group scrambled down to the river but failed to reach it, and returned to announce that the buttes were much taller than the great tower of Seville. Then nothing. Some Coronado chroniclers did not even mention this side trip in their accounts. </p>
<p>A Franciscan friar, Francisco Tomas Garcés, tracing tribes up the Colorado River, then visited the rim in 1776, discovered the Havasupai tribe, and departed. Fur trappers based in Taos knew of the great gorge, which they called the Big Cañon, and shunned it. When they guided exploring parties of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographic Engineers in search of transportation routes, they steered the expeditions away from the canyon, which offered no passage by water or land. </p>
<p>Then in 1857, Lt. Joseph C. Ives led a steamboat up the Colorado River in explicit quest of the Big Cañon. After the steamboat struck a rock and sank near Black Canyon, Ives traveled down Diamond Creek to the inner gorge, briefly touched at the South Rim, and in 1861 concluded with one of the most <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1xIOAAAAQAAJ&q=profitless+locality#v=snippet&q=profitless%20locality&f=false">infamous proclamations</a> to ever emerge from an American explorer. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The region is, of course, altogether valueless … after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Eight years later Major John Wesley Powell descended the Colorado River through its gorges, renamed the Big Cañon as the Grand Canyon, and wrote <a href="https://archive.org/details/explorationofcol1961powe">a classic account</a> of the view from the river. In 1882 Captain Clarence Dutton, in the first monograph published by the new U.S. Geological Survey, wrote an <a href="https://archive.org/details/tertiaryhistoryo00dutt">equally classic account</a>, this time from the rim.</p>
<p>Something had changed. Mostly it was the advent of geology as a science with broad cultural appeal. The Grand Canyon might be valueless as a corridor of transport, but it was a “wonderland” for the new science. It helped enormously that artists were drawn to landscapes, of which the canyon seemed both unique and operatic. Urged by Powell and Dutton, <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3406">Thomas Moran</a> and <a href="http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=2279">William Henry Holmes</a> transformed a supremely visual scene into paint and ink.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257331/original/file-20190205-86213-1ikkv90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panorama from Point Sublime, illustration of the Grand Canyon by William Henry Holmes, published in Clarence E. Dutton, ‘Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District’ (1882).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Holmes#/media/File:Duttonnp000086AAA2.jpg">USGS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Before Powell and Dutton, the Grand Canyon was a place to avoid. Now it was a marvel to admire. Twenty years later Teddy Roosevelt stepped off a train at the South Rim and added nationalism to the mix by declaring it “a natural wonder … absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world.”</p>
<p>It was an astonishing reversal of perception. The geologic mystery of the canyon is how the south-trending Colorado River made a sudden turn westward to carve its way, cross-grained, through four plateaus. This is also more or less what happened culturally. Intellectuals cut against existing aesthetics to make a place that looked nothing like pastorals or alpine mountains into a compelling spectacle. </p>
<p>Unlike most great features, the Grand Canyon is invisible until you stand on its rim. You aren’t drawn to it as to a river’s source or a mountain’s peak. You have to seek it out, and then cope with its visual revelation. It simply and suddenly is. </p>
<p>So it appeared to Western civilization. As Dutton pointed out, the canyon, “while the sublimest thing on earth,” was “a great innovation in our modern ideas of scenery,” and appreciating a scene so alien to European sensibilities demanded the invention of a new aesthetic. It required its own unique canon of appreciation. The Grand Canyon stood alone. </p>
<h2>Humans can only mar it</h2>
<p>It still does, which makes its standing as a natural wonder paradoxical. Yet in two ways the canyon has strengthened both the aesthetics of landscape and its preservation. </p>
<p>First, it added an appreciation for exposed rock, gorges and earth colors to the traditional focus on the bucolic, the alpine and the green. It made it possible to value the larger setting of the Colorado Plateau, which contained the Grand Canyon but otherwise lay to the margins of American settlement and economy. This region now has the highest density of parks and monuments of any physiographic province in the country. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=784&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/257332/original/file-20190205-86205-1q5typa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colorado Plateau national parks and monuments.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/photogallery/nri/park/geology/49177B13-1DD8-B71B-0BF120CC77B24F45/49177B13-1DD8-B71B-0BF120CC77B24F45-large.jpg">NPS</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Second, the Grand Canyon contributed to the rise of postwar environmentalism through debates in the 1960s over proposed dams. The canyon had enough cultural cachet that advocates could <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-when-the-sierra-club-saved-the-grand-canyon/2931/">argue successfully</a> to protect it. Slightly upriver, Glen Canyon by contrast lacked that heritage <a href="https://azpbs.org/horizon/2018/06/glen-canyon-dam-remains-controversial/">and got dammed</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the Grand Canyon sits awkwardly in more contemporary preservationist thinking. The larger thrust has been to expand beyond geologic monumentalism, typical of early parks, and incorporate living landscapes rich in biodiversity and unique habitats. But the Grand Canyon is a geological spectacle. If it contained nothing alive within its immense amphitheater, it would still retain its cultural power. Its scale is so vast that, other than flooding it above the inner gorge, it’s hard to imagine what people might do to permanently alter it. </p>
<p>Yet it is possible to spoil the canyon experience. What it takes is an obscured sky, or a visually confused viewpoint, or social noise that distracts from the quiet calm of individual vision. The Grand Canyon’s great impact still derives from the sudden shock of seeing it all without filters or foreground. The rim just falls away. The canyon is there, instantly and insistently. It is an individual epiphany, unmediated. That sensation is what must survive for the Grand Canyon to work its cultural alchemy.</p>
<p>Threats to it are not new, but they have evolved from <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2018/10/01/supreme-court-declines-hear-obama-grand-canyon-mining-ban-case/1489992002/">mining</a>, dams and <a href="http://eebweb.arizona.edu/faculty/Bonine/Abbey1968_DSolitaire.pdf">industrial tourism</a> to the compounding insults of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-it-mean-to-preserve-nature-in-the-age-of-humans-39987">Anthropocene era</a>. Still, as Roosevelt understood, the Grand Canyon testifies to that most fundamental of all needs. “Leave it as it is. … The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.” Keep it, he urged, “for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you.” </p>
<p>We can do that in spite of climate change, invasive species, a feckless global economy, dysfunctional politics, and a national attention span for which sound bites take too long. We can leave it as it is.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-grand-canyon-changed-our-ideas-of-natural-beauty-56204">article</a> first published on March 21, 2016.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Pyne has received funding from the U.S. Forest Service, Department of the Interior and Joint Fire Science Program. </span></em></p>The Grand Canyon, which marks 100 years as a national park on Feb. 26, 2019, is known today as an iconic natural wonder. But early European visitors weren’t impressed.Stephen Pyne, Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1059262019-01-15T11:29:24Z2019-01-15T11:29:24ZTo preserve US national parks in a warming world, reconnect fragmented public lands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265328/original/file-20190322-36273-8r71uw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elk on the move in Yellowstone National Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/FVEuAi">NPS/Neal Herbert</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration’s proposal to <a href="https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/03/updated-presidents-fy20-budget-proposal-cuts-interior-14-percent">lop 14 percent off</a> the Interior Department’s budget for fiscal year 2020, which would continue a series of cuts to the National Park Service, spotlights how vulnerable these unique places are. </p>
<p>“The core element of the national parks is that they are in the perpetuity business,” Gary Machlis, former science adviser to the director of the Park Service, once told me. “The irony is that our mission is to preserve things in perpetuity, but we do it on an annual budget and a four-year presidential cycle.”</p>
<p>Similar budget measures were proposed a year ago but Congress declined to act on them. The latest round of cuts is considered <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-budget-2020/?utm_term=.daafc3d81016">unlikely to be approved</a>.</p>
<p>Those budget pressures are part of a pattern that extends back more than a decade. But the park system and all public lands, including national monuments, forests, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, face broader threats, as I show in my book, “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520291478/grand-canyon-for-sale">Grand Canyon for Sale</a>.”</p>
<p>Climate change will force wild species in all national parks to adapt, often by migrating. The problem is that U.S. policies – especially under the Trump administration – are fragmenting connections between parks and other public lands that give natural systems better odds for survival. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ur4I8tYnxP4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the mid-1800s, the land that would become Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers. By 2015 only 25 remained.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conservation islands</h2>
<p>External threats to national parks aren’t new. Politicians started trying to protect the Grand Canyon from private interests <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/upload/chapter1.pdf">in the 1880s</a>. Finally, in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt used his power under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">Antiquities Act</a> to designate the canyon as a national monument. </p>
<p>During a visit to the canyon, Roosevelt <a href="http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/trenvpics/trgrandcanyonspeech.pdf">told onlookers</a>, “I hope that you will not … mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the loneliness and beauty of the Canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it.” A decade later, President Woodrow Wilson <a href="https://twitter.com/grandcanyonnps/status/438840802966384640">signed the bill</a> that created Grand Canyon National Park on Feb. 26, 1919. </p>
<p>Aggressive and well-financed private industries, including logging, mining, grazing, energy production and real estate development, operate on other public lands, where they often pose threats to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trump-administration-is-scrapping-a-collaborative-sage-grouse-protection-plan-to-expand-oil-and-gas-drilling-108398">plants and wildlife</a>. By expanding development and fragmenting existing tracts of land, they also shut down future survival prospects for wild species in the national parks themselves. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253758/original/file-20190114-43510-9ku0m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six well pads along boundary of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/pXDk3d">Chris Boyer, Kestrel Aerial Services, Inc./NPCA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Parks in a changing climate</h2>
<p>Over all of these issues looms the broadest threat: climate change. According to a meta-analysis of 123 research studies conducted between 1990 and 2010, nearly all the land administered by the National Park Service is <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/ParkScience28-2-Summer2011_10-15_Gonzalez_2804.pdf">located in areas of observed warming in the 20th century</a>. And a 2018 study showed that the parks are <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-caused-climate-change-severely-exposes-the-us-national-parks-103715">bearing the brunt of climate change</a> because many are located in regions that are hotter and drier than the nation as a whole. </p>
<p>Part of the National Park Service’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/to-provide-for-the-enjoyment-for-future-generations.htm">mission</a> is to conserve wild species and natural systems in the parks “by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Climate change makes this an epic challenge. For example, Grand Canyon National Park’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/GRCA-CFP-Action-Plan-508compliant.pdf">climate change action plan</a> warns of more frequent droughts, habitat fragmentation, more frequent and intense wildfires and floods, and shrinking waterflows in the Colorado River.</p>
<p>And, of course, the gathering heat. In effect, many national parks’ climates will move two or three hundred miles south during this century. By 2100, if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, Grand Canyon will be as hot as the climate now is along the Mexican border. The climate of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm">Great Smoky Mountains National Park</a>, the most popular in the system, will slide nearly to Florida. As soon as two decades from now, according to the latest U.S. national climate assessment, the Grand Canyon region and its wild species could endure <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/25/">40 to 50 more days with temperatures over 90 degrees yearly</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253770/original/file-20190114-43541-19bw5vp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1210&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">According to the 2018 national climate assessment, unchecked climate change could make many U.S. national parks feel like locations much further south by the end of this century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Zganjar, based on 26 climate model projections.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar changes are occurring throughout the park system. <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/retreat-glaciers-glacier-national-park?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects">Glaciers are disappearing</a> from <a href="https://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm">Glacier National Park</a> in Montana. Giant sequoia trees in <a href="https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm">Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks</a> in California are threatened by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JG004005">heat, fire and insects</a>. Rising seas are starting to inundate dozens of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/upload/2018-NPS-Sea-Level-Change-Storm-Surge-Report-508Compliant.pdf">parks along coastlines</a>, from Florida’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/drto/index.htm">Dry Tortugas</a> to Alaska’s <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bela/index.htm">Bering Land Bridge</a>. </p>
<h1>Creating escape routes</h1>
<p>As climate zones shift, many plants and animals will need to migrate into or out of protected natural areas to stay within temperature and moisture ranges where they have evolved over thousands of years. Scientists are outlining plans to ensure futures for at least some of these species by making it easier for them to move to different habitats. But studies on “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14373">climate connectivity</a>” warn that if public lands around national parks are used for drilling, mining, logging and commercial development, they won’t function as survival paths for wild species. </p>
<p>“You can’t manage a national park by itself. That’s increasingly a strategy for failure,” Northern Arizona University biologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_5q8kcYAAAAJ&hl=en">Paul Beier</a> told me. “Your park is embedded in the landscape, and we have to get smart about managing the entire landscape, because the climate is moving.”</p>
<p>This research signals that if the goal is to guard the endurance of wild species for future generations, Congress and federal agencies will need to find new ways of managing the nation’s <a href="https://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/fedlands.html">million square miles</a> of federal public lands. National parks will need to depend on healthy adjacent national forests, wildlife refuges, monuments and rangelands, maintained in their natural state.</p>
<p>In a 2017 study, researchers found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1705834114">creating links among isolated preserves</a> was a suprisingly effective way to maintain wild bird populations in Africa and Brazil. “The issues in the American West are the same,” Duke University ecologist and study co-author <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=FmTTcdMAAAAJ&hl=en">Stuart Pimm</a> told me. “A lot of the West is protected, but it’s fragmented. Reestablishing that connectivity among public lands will give animals a chance to move, slowing down rates of local extinction.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Yellowstone to Yukon, a joint U.S.-Canadian initiative, works to create an interconnected system of wild lands and waters that enables both humans and wildlife to thrive.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Promoting extractive use</h2>
<p>However, the Trump administration is opening public lands in pursuit of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-energy-dominance-the-right-goal-for-us-policy-79825">energy dominance</a>.” The Interior Department has removed millions of acres from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/25/travel/bears-ears-utah-politics-trump-national-monument.html">national monuments</a> and opened them for uses such as logging and mining. Oil and gas leasing on public lands has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/climate/trump-fracking-drilling-oil-gas.html">tripled</a> since President Trump assumed office.</p>
<p>Public lands generate wealth for other private interests, too. In the West, some 400,000 square miles managed by the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/natural-resources/rangelands-and-grazing/livestock-grazing">Interior Department</a> and <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rangeland-management/documents/grazing-stats/2010s/GrazingStatisticalSummaryFY2016.pdf">Forest Service</a> are leased for cattle ranching. These acres provide only one percent of our national supply of beef, but studies have documented that livestock grazing across the west can <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2386504">foul water sources, erode soil and severely diminish survival chances for wild species</a>. </p>
<p>The lease programs cost the government <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/grazing/pdfs/CostsAndConsequences_01-2015.pdf">more than six times as much to administer</a> as they bring in. According to data that I obtained from federal agencies, most leases are held by very large, often absentee cattle operators and by corporate interests. </p>
<p>In contrast, studies by <a href="https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm">federal agencies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sure-pipelines-are-good-for-oil-companies-but-what-about-jobs-related-to-preserving-nature-and-culture-72042">private researchers</a> show that even in raw economic terms, healthy and protected landscapes are worth tens of billions of dollars to their owners – the American public – each year. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, climate change ratchets up. Preserving the nature of U.S. national parks will require connecting and protecting all of America’s public lands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Nash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What is the best way to conserve US national parks in a climate-altered future? One answer is connecting parks and other public lands, so plants and animals can shift their ranges.Stephen Nash, Visiting Senior Research Scholar, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008002018-07-31T10:38:09Z2018-07-31T10:38:09ZA perfect storm of factors is making wildfires bigger and more expensive to control<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229881/original/file-20180730-106502-1mukxhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Carr Fire tears through Shasta, California, July 26, 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-California-Wildfires/7ac6f927a79f4803b4c299e1dd86b07c/9/1">AP Photo/Noah Berger</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hopes for fewer large wildfires in 2018, after last year’s disastrous fire season, are rapidly disappearing across the West. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/us/carr-fire-california/index.html">Six deaths</a> have been reported in Northern California’s Carr Fire, including two firefighters. Fires have scorched <a href="https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2018/07/national-parks-wildfire-roundup">Yosemite, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Sequoia and Grand Canyon national parks</a>. A blaze in June forced Colorado to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-juan-national-forest-closed-extreme-fire-danger-2018-06-12/">shut down the San Juan National Forest</a>. So far this year, 4.6 million acres have burned nationwide – less than last year, but well above the <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm">10-year average of 3.7 million acres</a> at this date.</p>
<p>These active wildfire years also mean higher firefighting costs. For my research on natural resource management and rural economic development, I work frequently with the U.S. Forest Service, which does most federal firefighting. Rising fire suppression costs over the past three decades have nearly destroyed the agency’s budget. Its overall funding <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/about-agency/budget-performance">has been flat for decades</a>, while fire suppression costs have grown dramatically. </p>
<p>Earlier this year Congress passed a “<a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2018/03/23/secretary-perdue-applauds-fire-funding-fix-omnibus">fire funding fix</a>” that changes the way in which the federal government will pay for large fires during expensive fire seasons. But it doesn’t affect the factors that are making fire suppression more costly, such as climate trends and more people living in fire prone landscapes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/229880/original/file-20180730-106499-1x82gh2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annual wildfire-burned area (in millions of acres), 1983 to 2015. The Forest Service stopped collecting statistics in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-wildfires">National Interagency Fire Center</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More burn days, more fuel</h2>
<p>What is driving this trend? Many factors have come together to create a perfect storm. They include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607171113">climate change</a>, past forest and fire management practices, housing development, increased focus on community protection and the professionalization of wildfire management.</p>
<p>Fire seasons are growing longer in the United States and <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2315/study-fire-seasons-getting-longer-more-frequent/">worldwide</a>. According to the Forest Service, climate change has expanded the wildfire season by an average of <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/sites/default/files/2015-Fire-Budget-Report.pdf">78 days per year</a> since 1970. This means agencies need to keep seasonal employees on their payrolls longer and have contractors standing by earlier and available to work later in the year. All of this adds to costs, even in low fire years.</p>
<p>In many parts of the wildfire-prone West, decades of fire suppression combined with historic logging patterns have created small, dense forest stands that are more vulnerable to large wildfires. In fact, many areas have fire deficits – significantly less fire than we would expect given current climatic and forest conditions. Fire suppression in these areas only delays the inevitable. When fires do get away from firefighters, they are more severe because of the accumulation of small trees and brush.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227625/original/file-20180713-27033-2yzk0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue areas on this map experienced fire deficits (less area burned than expected) between 1994 and 2012. Red areas had fire surpluses (more area burned than expected), while yellow areas were roughly normal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1890/ES15-00294.1">Parks et al., 2015, https://doi.org/10.1890/ES15-00294.1</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Protecting communities and forests</h2>
<p>In recent decades, development has pushed into areas with fire-prone ecosystems – the wildland-urban interface. In response, the Forest Service has shifted its priorities from protecting timber resources to trying to keep fire from reaching houses and other physical infrastructure. </p>
<p>Fires near communities are fraught with political pressure and complex interactions with state and local fire and public safety agencies. They put enormous pressure on the Forest Service to do whatever is possible to suppress fires. There is considerable impetus to use air tankers and helicopters, although these resources are expensive and only effective in a limited number of circumstances. </p>
<p>As it started to prioritize protecting communities in the late 1980s, the Forest Service also ended its policy of fully suppressing all wildfires. Now fires are managed using a multiplicity of objectives and tactics, ranging from full suppression to allowing fires to grow larger so long as they stay within desired ranges. </p>
<p>This shift requires more and better-trained personnel and more interagency coordination. It also means letting some fires grow bigger, which requires personnel to monitor the blazes even when they stay within acceptable limits. Moving away from full suppression and increasing prescribed fire is controversial, but many scientists believe it will produce <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1617464114">long-term ecological, public safety and financial benefits</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=463&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/227032/original/file-20180710-70057-p5nbzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=582&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Suburban and exurban development has pushed into many fire-prone wild areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/165156.php">USFS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Professionalizing wildfire response</h2>
<p>As fire seasons lengthened and staffing for the national forest system declined, the Forest Service was less and less able to use national forest employees as a militia whose regular jobs could be set aside for brief periods for firefighting. Instead, it started to hire staff dedicated exclusively to wildfire management and use private-sector contractors for fire suppression. </p>
<p>There is little research on the costs of this transition, but hiring more dedicated professional fire staffers and a large contractor pool is probably more expensive than the Forest Service’s earlier model. However, as the agency’s workforce shrank by 20,000 between 1980 and the early 2010s and fire seasons expanded, it had little choice but to transform its fire organization. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In six of the past 10 years, wildfire activities have consumes at least half of the U.S. Forest Service’s annual budget.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20171031_R45005_bfa581a1271def62f0dbf3e09d2ae4c5bdb5a1e2.html#_Toc497289414">CRS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Baked-in fire risks</h2>
<p>Many of these drivers are beyond the Forest Service’s control. Climate change, the fire deficit on many western lands and development in the wildland-urban interface ensure that the potential for major fires is baked into the system for decades to come.</p>
<p>There are some options for reducing risks and managing costs. Public land managers and forest landowners may be able to influence fire behavior in certain settings with techniques such as hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed fire. But these strategies will further increase costs in the short and medium term. </p>
<p>Another cost-saving strategy would be to rethink how firefighters use expensive resources such as airplanes and helicopters. But it will require political courage for the Forest Service to not use expensive resources on high-profile wildfires when they may not be effective. </p>
<p>Even if these approaches work, they will likely only slow the rate of increase in costs. Wildfire fighting costs now consume <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45005.pdf">more than half of the agency’s budget</a>. This is a problem because it reduces funds for national forest management, research and development, and support for state and private forestry. Over the long term, these are the very activities that are needed to address the growing problem of wildfire.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/spiraling-wildfire-fighting-costs-are-largely-beyond-the-forest-services-control-86041">originally published July 25, 2018</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cassandra Moseley receives funding from the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Interior Joint Fire Science Program, and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. She is a former member of the USDA Forest Research Advisory Council.</span></em></p>Climate change, development, past forest management policies and current firefighting practices are creating conditions for large, costly wildfires.Cassandra Moseley, Associate Vice President for Research and Research Professor, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992512018-07-12T10:26:55Z2018-07-12T10:26:55ZAll wildfires are not alike, but the US is fighting them that way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227199/original/file-20180711-27042-1vuvea1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wildland firefighters, like this crew heading into New Mexico's Gila National Forest, in 2012, are equipped and operate differently from urban firefighters.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/ccXLLE">USFS Gila National Forest</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So far, the 2018 fire season has produced a handful of big fires in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado; conflagrations in Oklahoma and Kansas; and a fire bust in Alaska, along with garden-variety wildfires from Florida to Oregon. Some of those fires are in rural areas, some are in wildlands, and a few are in exurbs. </p>
<p>Even in a time of new normals, this looks pretty typical. Fire starts are a little below the <a href="https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm">10-year running average</a>, and the amount of burned area is running above that average. But no one can predict what may happen in the coming months. California thought it had dodged a bullet in 2017, until a swarm of wildfires in late fall <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-were-californias-wine-country-fires-so-destructive-86043">blasted through Napa and Sonoma counties</a>, followed by the Big One – the Thomas fire, California’s <a href="https://ktla.com/2018/01/12/thomas-fire-largest-in-modern-california-history-reaches-full-containment-as-santa-barbara-county-remains-mired-in-mud/">largest on record</a>, in Ventura and Santa Barbara.</p>
<p>Every major fire rekindles another round of commentaries about “America’s wildfire problem.” But the fact is that our nation does not have a fire problem. It has many fire problems, and they require different strategies. Some problem fires have technical solutions, some demand cultural calls. All are political. </p>
<p>Here’s one idea: It’s time to rethink firefighting in the geekily labeled <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/reports/GTR-299.pdf">wildland-urban interface</a>, or WUI – zones where human development intermingles with forests, grasslands and other feral vegetation. </p>
<p>It’s a dumb name because the boundary is not really an interface but an intermix, in which houses and natural vegetation abut and scramble in an ecological omelet. It’s a dumb problem because we know how to keep houses from burning – but we have had to relearn that in WUI zones, hardening houses and landscaping their communities is the best defense. This is a local task, not a federal one, though the federal agencies have a supporting role and can, and do, help build local capacity.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/04hQxQL6OdM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Homes in Southern California are often closely surrounded by inflammable vegetation, creating extra urgency and work for firefighters - in this case from the L.A. County Fire Department.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Two fire cultures</h2>
<p>America is recolonizing rural landscapes everywhere, and fire in the WUI is one outcome. The concept appeared and received its name in Southern California, but has long since spread throughout the West. Some of the worst WUI risks reside in the southeastern United States, though they have mostly remained latent. Then a deadly blaze like the one that blew through <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/us/gatlinburg-fire-pictures-before-after/index.html">Gatlinburg, Tennessee,</a> to the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/11/29/dolly-parton-heartbroken-over-fire-destruction-dollywood-spared/94616080/">fringes of Dollywood</a> in 2016 reveals the full extent of the risk. </p>
<p>Just as development has stirred together built and natural landscapes, it also has juxtaposed two immiscible cultures of fire. Urban and wildland fire agencies are as different as fire hydrants and drip torches. </p>
<p>The mantra of urban fire control is “Learn not to burn.” Every fire is an existential threat to life and property, and the core goal of fire codes is protecting lives. Urban firefighters wear turnout coats, helmets and self-contained breathing apparatus. They pummel fires with water and often operate inside structures. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QINXcB4_l-g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Urban firefighter training in New York City.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For wildlands, the central code is “Learn to live with fire.” Firefighters wear hardhats, carry shovels and <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/burn-pulaski/">Pulaskis</a>, and wear bandannas. They work in woods, prairies and chaparral, spray dirt as often as water, and secure perimeters by setting fires to remove flammable vegetation between the flaming front and their control lines. Their great challenge is to restore good fire to biotas that hunger for it. </p>
<p>The training that each group gets is largely worthless in the other’s setting. There are a few instances of cross-training, particularly in rural areas, but the prime example of a major agency that tries to cope with both types of threats is the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as <a href="http://www.fire.ca.gov/">Cal Fire</a>. Its experience shows what fusing these two purposes can mean. </p>
<h2>Mixing the missions</h2>
<p>Cal Fire began as the California Department of Forestry, a land management agency, albeit one with serious fire responsibilities. In 1974, under the pressures of postwar development, it became the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In 2007 it collapsed that mission into Cal Fire, which operates like an urban fire service in the woods. </p>
<p>Decades ago, federal fire agencies gave up on suppression as a sole strategy. They recognized that the best way to control fire is to control the landscape, preferably through fire, and that eliminating all fires in places that have grown up with them only creates conditions that make wildfires worse. By contrast, for Cal Fire, the urgency of fires rolling into communities trumps all other tasks. If the last firefight fails, it has to double down for the next one. </p>
<p>Today the WUI is exerting a similar transformation at the national level. It threatens to become a black hole in America’s pyrogeography, drawing federal land agencies – primarily the <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/managing-land/fire">U.S. Forest Service</a> and the Interior Department’s <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/fire-and-aviation">Bureau of Land Management</a> – away from managing fire as a means of managing land, and transforming them into urban fire-service surrogates and auxiliaries. </p>
<p>These agencies can and do help communities prepare for fires, but they do not have the tools, training or temperament to fight fire on an urban model. Cal Fire’s template is too expensive; moreover, it sucks resources away from managing fire well on the land, so it is too ineffective to serve nationally. </p>
<p>Turning the U.S. Forest Service into a National Fire Service may bring some relief to the WUI, but this would undermine the other missions in the agency’s charter, and ultimately weaken its ability to manage landscape fire. Already its fire mission is consuming over 50 percent of the Forest Service’s annual budget. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216911/original/file-20180430-135837-2tlo9r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In six of the past 10 years, wildfire activities have consumes at least half of the U.S. Forest Service’s annual budget.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20171031_R45005_bfa581a1271def62f0dbf3e09d2ae4c5bdb5a1e2.html#_Toc497289414">CRS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Urban enclaves in the wild</h2>
<p>Research repeatedly shows that <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/27418">the critical component in the WUI fire environment is the structure itself</a>. Once a fire strikes the urban fringe it may morph into an urban conflagration, spreading from structure to structure, as happened in Santa Rosa, California, last fall. Clearly, the wildland fire community has to <a href="https://theconversation.com/recreating-forests-of-the-past-isnt-enough-to-fix-our-wildfire-problems-59364">improve fire resilience in its lands</a>, which should reduce the intensity of the threat. But the real action is in the built environment. </p>
<p>The fact that so many horrendous fires have <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/06/08/618444388/pg-e-power-lines-blamed-for-northern-california-wildfires">started from power lines</a> illustrates how fires mediate between the land and the ways we choose to live on it. Strengthening structures, bolstering urban fire services, treating WUI areas as built environment – this is where we will get the greatest paybacks.</p>
<p>In effect, we need to pick up the other end of the WUI stick. Think of these areas not as wildlands encumbered by houses, but as urban or exurban enclaves with peculiar landscaping. Defining the issue as fundamentally a wildland problem makes fixes difficult. Defining it as an urban problem makes solutions quickly apparent. The goal should be to segregate the two fire cultures and their habitats, and let each do what it does best. </p>
<p>Americans learned long ago how to keep cities from burning. And then, it seems, we forgot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Pyne has received funding from US Forest Service, Department of the Interior, and Joint Fire Science Program.</span></em></p>A historian of wildfires explains the difference between urban and rural fire cultures, and what it means for protecting communities in fire-prone rural areas.Stephen Pyne, Regents Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947292018-05-31T10:43:48Z2018-05-31T10:43:48ZThe sage grouse isn’t just a bird – it’s a proxy for control of Western lands<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220845/original/file-20180529-80637-1dnramd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Male sage grouse at the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Wyoming.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Gdxzcq">Tom Koerner/USFWS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Trump administration is clashing with conservation groups and others over protection for the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse/sagesteppe.php">greater sage grouse</a> (<em>Centrocercus urophasianus</em>), a bird widely known for its dramatic mating displays. The grouse is found across sagebrush country from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Sierra and Cascade mountain ranges on the west. </p>
<p>This region also contains significant oil and gas deposits. The Trump administration is <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060069897">revising</a> an elaborate plan developed under the Obama administration that sought to steer energy development away from sage grouse habitat. Conservation groups are <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/greater_sage_grouse/pdfs/Sage-Grouse-Oil-and-Gas-Complaint.pdf">suing in response</a>, arguing that this shift and accelerated oil and gas leasing threaten sage grouse and violate several key environmental laws.</p>
<p>This battle is the latest skirmish in a continuing narrative over management of Western public lands. Like its Republican <a href="https://upcolorado.com/about-us/blog/item/3419-public-lands-policy-under-the-trump-administration">predecessors</a>, the Trump administration is prioritizing use of public lands and resources over conservation. The question is whether its revisions will protect sage grouse and their habitat effectively enough to keep the birds off of the endangered species list – the outcome that the Obama plan was designed to achieve. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cLnbiTkj1TQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">By popping their brightly colored air sacs, male sage grouse create a sound that can carry 3 kilometers to attract females to their display ground.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sage grouse under siege</h2>
<p>Before European settlement, sage grouse numbered up to 16 million across the West. Today their population has shrunk to <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-greater-sage-grouse-and-the-endangered-species-act/">an estimated 200,000 to 500,000</a>. The main cause is habitat loss due to road construction, development and <a href="https://blog.nature.org/science/2015/10/02/sage-grouses-dance-decision-birds-conservation-endangered-listing-esa/">oil and gas leasing</a>. </p>
<p>More frequent wildland fires are also a factor. After wildfires, invasive species like <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/44.16/great-basin-scientists-unleash-new-weapons-to-fight-invasive-cheatgrass">cheatgrass</a> are first to appear and replace the sagebrush that grouse rely on for food and cover. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1607171113">Climate change and drought</a> also contribute to increased fire regimes, and the cycle repeats itself. </p>
<p>Concern over the sage grouse’s decline spurred five petitions to list it for protection under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/swimming-upstream-plight-of-delta-smelt-exposes-flaws-of-the-endangered-species-act-46239">Endangered Species Act</a> between 1999 and 2005. Listing a species is a major step because it requires federal agencies to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/listing-overview.html">ensure</a> that any actions they fund, authorize or carry out – such as awarding mining leases or drilling permits – will not threaten the species or its <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/what-we-do/critical-habitats.html">critical habitat</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220846/original/file-20180529-80623-1qcd6dt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Current and historic range of greater sage grouse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse/maps/20140815_GRSG_Range.jpg">USFWS</a></span>
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<p>In 2005 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared that an ESA listing for the sage grouse was “not warranted.” These decisions are supposed to be based on science, but leaks <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/book/46043">revealed</a> that an agency synthesis of sage grouse research had been edited by a political appointee who deleted scientific references without discussion. In a section that discussed whether grouse could access the types of sagebrush they prefer to feed on in winter, the appointee asserted, “I believe that is an overstatement, as they will eat other stuff if it’s available.” </p>
<p>In 2010 the agency ruled that the sage grouse was at risk of extinction, but <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/68803421/Warranted-but-Precluded-What-That-Means-Under-the-Endangered-Species-Act-ESA">declined to list it at that time</a>, although Interior Secretary Ken Salazar pledged to take steps to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/science/earth/06grouse.html">restore sagebrush habitat</a>. In a court settlement, the agency agreed to issue a listing decision by September 30, 2015. </p>
<h2>Negotiating the rescue plan</h2>
<p>The Obama administration launched a concerted effort in 2011 to develop enough actions and plans at the federal and state level to avoid an ESA listing for the sage grouse. This effort involved federal and state agencies, nongovernmental organizations and private landowners.</p>
<p>California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Wyoming all developed plans for conserving sage grouse and their habitat. The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management revised 98 land use plans in 10 states. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20160815_R44592_a2a92205681b28ca8921e99fea7d2565ef3888c6.pdf">funding</a> for voluntary conservation actions on private lands. </p>
<p>In 2015 Interior Secretary Sally Jewell <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2018/1017/ofr20181017.pdf">announced</a> that these actions had reduced threats to sage grouse habitat so effectively that a listing was no longer necessary. A bipartisan group of Western governors joined Jewell for the event. But despite the good feelings, some important value conflicts remained unresolved.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220848/original/file-20180529-80623-1psqylo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announces the sage grouse rescue plan in Colorado, Sept. 22, 2015. Behind Secretary Jewell are, left to right, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Sage-Grouse-Conservation/ca2ff97145d1453b9a3679a67fbc23a8/6/0">AP Photo/Brennan Linsley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Notably, the plan created zones called Sagebrush Focal Areas – zones that were deemed essential for the sage grouse to survive – and proposed to <a href="https://www.blm.gov/documents/national-office/blm-library/report/sagebrush-focal-areas-withdrawal-environmental-impact">bar mineral development</a> on 10 million acres within those areas. Some Western governors, such as Butch Otter of Idaho, <a href="http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/letters-from-the-west/article40865622.html">viewed</a> this element as a surprise and felt that it had been dropped on states from Washington, without consultation. </p>
<p>The Trump administration wants to <a href="https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-cancels-10-million-acre-sagebrush-focal-area-withdrawal-proposal">cancel</a> creation of Sagebrush Focal Areas and allow mining and energy development in these zones. Agency records show that as Interior Department officials reevaluated the sage grouse plan in 2017, they worked closely with <a href="https://psmag.com/environment/at-the-department-of-the-interior-industry-lobbyists-and-revolving-door-operatives-shape-sage-grouse-policy">representatives of the oil, gas and mining industries</a>, but not with environmental advocates.</p>
<h2>Can collaboration work?</h2>
<p>If the Trump administration does weaken the sage grouse plan, it could have much broader effects on relations between federal agencies and Western states. </p>
<p>Collaboration is emerging as a potential antidote to high-level political decisions and endless litigation over western public lands and resources. In addition to the sage grouse plan, recent examples include a <a href="http://westgov.org/images/editor/AGENDA_WWLF_Formatted_w_Header_3.7.18.pdf">Western Working Lands Forum</a> organized by the <a href="http://westgov.org/news/livestream-wga-western-working-lands-forum-on-march-15-16">Western Governors’ Association</a> in March 2018, and forest collaboratives in Idaho that include <a href="http://www.idahoforestpartners.org/Collaborations.html">diverse members</a> and work to balance timber production, jobs and ecological restoration in Idaho national forests.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220855/original/file-20180529-80626-1h2qpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warning sign in Wyoming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/cpBX5E">Mark Bellis/USFWS</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are two key requirements for these initiatives to succeed. First, they must give elected and high-level administrative appointees some cover to support locally and regionally crafted solutions. Second, they have to prevent federal officials from overruling outcomes with which they disagree. </p>
<p>When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in 2015 that an endangered listing for the sage grouse was not warranted, the agency <a href="https://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse/PDFs/2020%20GRSG%20Status%20Review_FINAL.pdf">committed</a> to revisit the bird’s status in 2020. To avoid having to list the grouse as endangered, the Trump administration must provide enough evidence and certainty to justify a decision not to list, as the Obama administration sought to do. If Interior changes land management plans and increases oil and gas leasing, that job could become harder. It also is possible that Congress might <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/stories/1060082643/">prohibit a listing</a>.</p>
<p>Finding a lasting solution will require the Trump administration to collaborate with states and other stakeholders, including environmental advocates, and allow local land managers to do the same. Then, whatever the outcome, it cannot reverse their efforts in Washington. As Matt Mead, Wyoming’s Republican governor, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/31/donald-trump-john-hickenlooper-warns-against-greater-sage-grouse-plan-changes/">warned</a> in 2017, “If we go down a different road now with the sage grouse, what it says is, when you try to address other endangered species problems in this country, don’t have a collaborative process, don’t work together, because it’s going to be changed.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94729/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth receives funding from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management, and is Executive Director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. The Center was founded by Cecil D. Andrus, former governor of Idaho and Secretary of the Interior in the Carter administration. </span></em></p>The Trump administration is reopening a plan negotiated under President Obama to protect Western sage grouse. This could signal to states not to bother working together to protect other endangered species.John Freemuth, Professor of Public Policy and Executive Director, Andrus Center for Public Policy, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883762017-12-05T04:08:16Z2017-12-05T04:08:16ZPresident Trump’s national monument rollback is illegal and likely to be reversed in court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197652/original/file-20171204-23009-caue0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Supporters of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments during a rally Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 in Salt Lake City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Utah-Federal-Lands/1d51f1f5cbc14313b3373008beb148da/13/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 4, President Trump traveled to Utah to sign proclamations downsizing <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/12/04/presidential-proclamation-modifying-bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears National Monument</a> by 85 percent and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/12/04/presidential-proclamation-modifying-grand-staircase-escalante-national">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a> by nearly 50 percent. “[S]ome people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” Trump <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-scales-back-two-huge-national-monuments-in-utah-drawing-praise-and-protests/2017/12/04/758c85c6-d908-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html?utm_term=.a32d1c44dad2">said</a>. “And guess what? They’re wrong.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.narf.org/narf-files-suit-protect-bears-ears/">Native American tribes</a> and <a href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/save_our_national_monuments/pdfs/TWS_v_Trump.pdf">environmental organizations</a> have already filed lawsuits challenging Trump’s action. In <a href="http://www.virginialawreview.org/volumes/content/presidents-lack-authority-abolish-or-diminish-national-monuments">our analysis</a> as environmental and natural resources law scholars, the president’s action is illegal and will likely be overturned in court. </p>
<h2>Contests over land use</h2>
<p>Since 1906 the <a href="http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title54-chapter3203&edition=prelim">Antiquities Act</a> has given presidents the authority to set aside federal lands in order to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GY29zfVsrWI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">History of the Antiquities Act.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a president creates a national monument, the area is “reserved” for the protection of sites and objects there, and may also be “withdrawn,” or exempted, from laws that would allow for mining, logging or oil and gas development. Frequently, monument designations grandfather in existing uses of the land, but prohibit new activities such as mineral leases or mining claims.</p>
<p>Because monument designations reorient land use away from resource extraction and toward conservation, some monuments have faced opposition from local officials and members of Congress. In the past two decades, Utah has been a flashpoint for this debate. </p>
<p>In 1996 President Clinton designated the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/nlcs_web/sites/ut/st/en/prog/nlcs_new/GSENM_NM.html">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a>, a region of incredible slot canyons and remote plateaus. Twenty years later, President Obama designated <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears National Monument</a>, an area of scenic rock formations and sites sacred to Native American tribes. </p>
<p>Utah’s <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/5035755-155/utah-lawmakers-take-aim-at-bears">governor</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/02/05/513492389/utah-representative-wants-bears-ears-gone-and-he-wants-trump-to-do-it">congressional delegation</a> have long argued that these monuments are larger than necessary and that presidents should defer to the state about whether to use the Antiquities Act. </p>
<h2>Zinke’s review</h2>
<p>In April President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/26/presidential-executive-order-review-designations-under-antiquities-act">ordered a review</a> of national monuments designated in the past two decades. Trump directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to recommend steps to eliminate or shrink these monuments or realign their management with Trump administration priorities.</p>
<p>Secretary Zinke’s review was an <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2017/08/28/the-trump-administrations-arbitrary-review-of-national-monuments/">arbitrary and opaque process</a>. During a rushed four-month period, Zinke <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-sends-monument-report-white-house">visited only eight</a> of the 27 monuments under review. At the end of the review, the Interior Department released to the public only a <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/monument-report-summary.pdf">two-page summary</a> of Zinke’s report.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/197665/original/file-20171204-22977-tevemd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visiting Bears Ears National Monument, May 9, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/UEAJp2">DOI</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In September the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/shrink-at-least-4-national-monuments-and-modify-a-half-dozen-others-zinke-tells-trump/2017/09/17/a0df45cc-9b48-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.a823be489670">Washington Post</a> published <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4052225-Interior-Secretary-Ryan-Zinke-s-Report-to-the.html">a leaked copy</a> of Zinke’s detailed recommendations. They included downsizing, changing management plans or loosening restrictions at a total of 10 monuments, including three ocean monuments.</p>
<h2>Trump’s proclamations</h2>
<p>Trump’s proclamations on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante note the long list of objects that the monuments were created to protect, but claim that many of these objects are “not unique,” “not of significant scientific or historic interest,” or “not under threat of damage or destruction.”</p>
<p>As a result, Trump’s orders <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/12/04/trump-is-coming-to-utah-to-perform-dramatic-feat-monday-make-big-national-monuments-mostly-disappear/">split each monument</a> into smaller units, excluding large tracts that are deemed “unnecessary.” <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/environment/2017/12/04/trump-leaves-some-places-in-new-monuments-but-strips-out-cedar-mesa/">Areas cut from the monuments</a>, including coal-rich portions of the Kaiparowits Plateau, will be reopened to mineral leasing, mining and other uses.</p>
<p>In our view, Trump’s justification for these changes <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2017/09/18/zinkes-report-recommends-downsizing-or-diminishing-protections-in-10-national-monuments/">mischaracterizes the law</a> and the <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2017/05/08/politicians-and-commentators-who-criticize-recent-national-monuments-are-making-up-their-own-version-of-history/">history of national monument designations</a>.</p>
<h2>What the law says</h2>
<p>The key question at issue is whether the Antiquities Act empowers presidents to alter or revoke decisions by past administrations. The <a href="https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#a4">Property Clause of the Constitution</a> gives Congress the power to decide what happens on “territory or other property belonging to the United States.” When Congress passed the Antiquities Act, it delegated a portion of that authority to the president <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">so that administrations could act quickly</a> to protect resources or sites that are threatened.</p>
<p>Critics of recent national monuments <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-can-reverse-obamas-last-minute-land-grab-1483142922">argue</a> that if a president can create a national monument, the next one can undo it. However, the Antiquities Act speaks only of designating monuments. It says nothing about abolishing or shrinking them. </p>
<p>Two other early land management statutes – the Pickett Act of 1910 and the Forest Service Organic Act of 1897 – authorized the president to withdraw other types of land, and specifically stated that the president could modify or revoke those actions. In contrast, the Antiquities Act is silent on reversing past decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167054/original/file-20170427-15097-u07hs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ruins at Chaco Culture National Historic Park, New Mexico, originally protected under the Antiquities Act by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 to prevent looting of archaeological sites.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park#/media/File:Chaco-Ruins2,-Kiva-Detail.jpg">Steven C. Price/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1938, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered abolishing the Castle-Pinckney National Monument – a deteriorating fort in Charleston, South Carolina – Attorney General Homer Cummings <a href="http://www.law.indiana.edu/publicland/files/national_monuments_modifications_CRS.pdf">advised</a> that the president did not have the power to take this step. (Congress abolished the monument in 1951.) </p>
<p>Congress enacted a major overhaul of public lands law in 1976, the <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-90/pdf/STATUTE-90-Pg2743.pdf">Federal Land Policy and Management Act</a>, repealing many earlier laws. However, it did not repeal the Antiquities Act. The House Committee that drafted the 1976 law also made clear in legislative reports that it intended to prohibit the president from modifying or abolishing a national monument, stating that the law would “specifically reserve to the Congress the authority to modify and revoke withdrawals for national monuments created under the Antiquities Act.”</p>
<p>Since that time, no president until Trump has attempted to revoke or downsize any national monument. Trump’s changes to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante depend on an argument that presidential declarations about what a national monument protects are subject to second-guessing by subsequent presidents. These claims run counter to every court decision that has examined the Antiquities Act.</p>
<p>Courts have always been deferential to presidents’ use of the law, and no court has ever struck down a monument based on its size or the types of objects it is designed to protect. Congress, rather than the President, has the authority to alter monuments, should it decide that changes are appropriate.</p>
<h2>The value of preservation</h2>
<p>This summer <a href="http://legal-planet.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/national-monuments-comment-letter-from-law-professors_as-filed.pdf">118 other law professors</a>, as well as <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-trump-administration-protect-california%E2%80%99s-national">California Attorney General Xavier Becerra</a> and a number of conservation organizations, cited our analysis in letters to Secretary Zinke concluding that the president does not have authority to downsize or revoke national monuments.</p>
<p>Although many national monuments faced vociferous local opposition when they were declared, including Jackson Hole National Monument (now part of <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm">Grand Teton National Park</a>), over time, Americans have come to appreciate them. </p>
<p>Indeed, Congress has converted many into national parks, including <a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm">Acadia</a>, the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grca/index.htm">Grand Canyon</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/arch/index.htm">Arches</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm">Joshua Tree</a>. These four parks alone attracted <a href="https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSReports/National%20Reports/Annual%20Visitation%20By%20Park%20(1979%20-%20Last%20Calendar%20Year)">over 13 million visitors</a> in 2016. The aesthetic, cultural, scientific, spiritual and economic value of preserving them has long exceeded whatever short-term benefit could have been derived without legal protection. </p>
<p><a href="https://bearsearscoalition.org/proposal-overview/ancestral-and-modern-day-land-users/">Bears Ears</a> and Grand Staircase-Escalante are home to many natural and archaeological wonders, including scenic bluffs, petroglyphs, burial grounds and other sacred sites and a rich diversity of plant and animal life. The five Native American tribes that supported protecting Bears Ears, led by the Navajo Nation, have vowed to defend the monuments in court. President Trump’s effort to scale back these monuments oversteps his authority and is unlikely to stand.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-monuments-presidents-can-create-them-but-only-congress-can-undo-them-76774">article</a> originally published on April 27, 2017.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Biber was an associate attorney with Earthjustice from 2003-2006, where he worked on litigation relating to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Squillace served as Special Assistant to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior in the year 2000.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas Bryner and Sean B. Hecht do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Trump signed an order on Dec. 4 to drastically reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Four legal experts explain why this action is likely to be reversed.Nicholas Bryner, Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy, University of California, Los AngelesEric Biber, Professor of Law, University of California, BerkeleyMark Squillace, Professor of Law, University of Colorado BoulderSean B. Hecht, Professor of Policy and Practice; Co-Executive Director, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment; and Co-Director, UCLA Law Environmental Law Clinic, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/846522017-09-28T00:31:34Z2017-09-28T00:31:34ZShrinking and altering national monuments: Experts assess Interior Secretary Zinke’s proposals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187600/original/file-20170926-25765-ta48wd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has proposed shrinking Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and allowing more public access and road maintenance. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/My_Public_Lands_Roadtrip-_Cascade-Siskiyou_National_Monument_in_oregon_%2818908719600%29.jpg">Bob Wich/BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: On April 26, 2017, President Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/26/presidential-executive-order-review-designations-under-antiquities-act">ordered</a> Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review 27 national monuments that had been created or expanded since 1996 and exceeded 100,000 acres in size. Zinke was directed to reassess boundaries and management standards for these monuments and consider alternative uses and local economic development impacts.</em> </p>
<p><em>In a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4052225-Interior-Secretary-Ryan-Zinke-s-Report-to-the.html">recently leaked memo</a>, Zinke recommends shrinking four national monuments and changing management standards in six others to permit more timber harvesting, livestock grazing, fishing and road access. Our panel of experts weighs in on his proposals.</em></p>
<h2>Proxies for a changing West</h2>
<p><strong>Robert B. Keiter, Law, University of Utah</strong></p>
<p>Secretary Zinke’s recommendations, deferential to local complaints, are plainly tethered to a multiple-use philosophy that values traditional economic uses such as logging, mining, energy development and grazing over preserving natural and cultural resources.</p>
<p>This review was largely triggered by <a href="http://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2017/04/26/utah-delegation-applauds-trump-national-monuments-order/100934600/">complaints from Utah politicians</a>. The state has long felt slighted by President Clinton’s 1996 decision to protect 1.7 million acres as the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a> without prior consultation. Critics also contend that creating the monument blocked a large coal mine project, albeit one that was tenuous at best given its remote location. </p>
<p>Utah officials also objected to President Obama’s 2016 designation of <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears National Monument</a> on 1.35 million acres in southeastern Utah that the National Trust for Historic Preservation <a href="https://savingplaces.org/places/ancestral-places-of-southeast-utah#.WckiUtOGNAY">calls</a> “one of the most significant cultural landscapes in our history.” Obama acted only after extensive public consultation, and then only after failed efforts by the Utah congressional delegation to pass legislation protecting the area, which has seen ongoing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-major-native-american-site-is-being-looted-will-obama-risk-armed-conflict-to-save-it/2016/06/05/bf2dfcfc-1dff-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html?utm_term=.986b8d90f181">looting and grave robbing</a>. </p>
<p>Long wary of the federal government, Utah <a href="http://vjel.vermontlaw.edu/files/2014/10/Lawton.pdf">resents that two-thirds of its land is federally owned</a> and asserts that these national monument designations preclude more lucrative mineral development opportunities. <a href="https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/minority-of-opponents-seen-at-monument-meeting/article_c66a11f4-d981-5af0-858e-4aa17e8d53bc.html">Similar complaints</a> about recent national monument designations can be heard elsewhere in the rural West, with regular support from mining companies, timber firms and the oil and gas industry.</p>
<p><iframe id="DalTk" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DalTk/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Ironically, Utah also proudly promotes its lucrative “<a href="https://www.visitutah.com/places-to-go/most-visited-parks/the-mighty-5/?&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIx6-k4tXA1gIVBLbACh2Ddg4eEAAYASAAEgJFi_D_BwE">Mighty Five” national parks</a>, four of which were originally national monuments that state and local officials <a href="https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2017/05/op-ed-some-people-have-always-hated-national-monuments-until-they-love-them">strongly resisted</a> when they were originally designated.</p>
<p>Nearly every president has invoked the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">Antiquities Act</a> to protect at-risk sites, ultimately giving the nation such treasures as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm">Zion</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm">Grand Teton</a> and <a href="https://www.nps.gov/acad/index.htm">Acadia</a> National Parks. Federal courts have consistently sustained these designations without concern about their size. In fact, the courts have ruled that <a href="http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/306/1138/642267/">ecosystems and scenic features qualify for protection</a> under the act.</p>
<p>The Antiquities Act is silent on <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-monuments-presidents-can-create-them-but-only-congress-can-undo-them-76774">whether a president can rescind or modify national monuments</a>. No president has ever eliminated a national monument, and only a few presidents have adjusted monument boundaries. Although no court has ever decided this precise question, both the attorney general and the interior solicitor early on concluded that the president lacks the power to modify established national monuments.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y9MO6oXpFs0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Local reactions to the designation of Bears Ears National Monument in 2016.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If President Trump follows Zinke’s recommendations, monument supporters – including Native American tribes, conservation groups, historians, archeologists and the outdoor recreation industry – will undoubtedly challenge his actions in court. The case will likely turn on whether authority to modify national monuments can be inferred from the Antiquities Act’s silence. Courts may be reluctant to allow a president to second-guess his predecessors, which could invite endless future litigation. </p>
<p>If Trump relies on factors not found in the Antiquities Act – namely, alternative land uses or local economic impacts – courts could find that he has overstepped the bounds of his delegated statutory authority. Moreover, Congress essentially ratified the designation of Grand Staircase-Escalante by endorsing a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060053899">subsequent exchange</a> that turned some federal lands over to Utah. If Trump moves to shrink the monument, courts would have to decide whether the president can override the congressional ratification. </p>
<p>However, if courts upheld the president’s changes, the door would be wide open for future presidents to regularly reverse their predecessors’ national monument decisions. This would create a never-ending spiral of instability and uncertainty – something that property law has long abhorred.</p>
<p>Under the Constitution’s property clause, Congress has plenary power over the public lands, a power the Supreme Court says is “<a href="http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1783&context=fac_artchop">without limitations</a>.” Congress can convert national monuments into national parks or expand, contract, rescind or modify them. But despite recurrent complaints from western states, Congress has not taken any action, thus implicitly endorsing recent designations. </p>
<p>Moreover, Grand Staircase-Escalante now has been a national monument for 20 years, and nearby communities have experienced <a href="https://headwaterseconomics.org/wp-content/uploads/Escalante.pdf">considerable income and job growth</a>. This suggests that monument designations are not an economic drag, as they often are portrayed. In sum, this debate is really about a rural West that is in transition and leery of a future that probably rests more heavily on preserving resources than extracting them. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QlKOcyf915M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Promotional video for Utah’s ‘Mighty Five’ national parks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No mandate for logging</h2>
<p><strong>Anthony Moffa, Law, University of Maine; Sarah Schindler, Law, University of Maine</strong></p>
<p>President Obama designated the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/kaww/index.htm">Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument</a> in 2016 on 87,500 acres of land <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/23/quimby-transfers-land-to-federal-government/">donated by entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby</a>. Interior Secretary Zinke has recommended that Obama’s proclamation should be amended to allow for more intensive timber harvesting within its borders. In our view, this action is both illegal and unwise. </p>
<p>Under the Antiquities Act, once a national monument is designated, the secretary of the interior has a responsibility to regulate it in order to protect objects of historic or scientific interest that it contains. It is hard to see how allowing more extractive uses squares with that mandate. </p>
<p>Moreover, because of the unusual gift agreement that led to its creation, Katahdin Woods and Waters is already specially regulated to allow hunting and snowmobiling – activities that typically are prohibited in national parks and monuments. Zinke’s recommendation to add timber harvesting would violate the terms of the agreement and the careful balance between uses that the landowners sought.</p>
<p>This land previously belonged to Mainers who desired to create a monument and made a generous gift. They could very well have retained the land as their “sole and despotic dominion,” blocking people from using it and banning all timber harvesting. Even if Zinke’s assertion that “traditional uses, such as timbering …were permitted as part of custom of the local area” is accurate, that historical private use should not motivate a change to the management of what is now public land, preserved as a national monument. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187615/original/file-20170926-10935-1wzo6sl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/KG3NFv">USDOI</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fisheries under pressure</h2>
<p><strong>Syma A. Ebbin, Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Connecticut</strong></p>
<p>Setting aside underwater land has only recently gained traction as a strategy for marine protection. Marine protected areas often are controversial because they may limit fishermen’s access to waters and resources. However, most managers and scientists see limits on when and where fishing can occur as useful, if not necessary, management tools. </p>
<p>And now the utility of expanding closures in time and space is <a href="https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/Consensus/consensus.pdf">gaining traction as a conservation strategy</a>. These restrictions can maintain and even enhance the abundance of many species, protect spawning aggregations and habitats and restore whole ecosystems.</p>
<p>In 1994 a large area of <a href="https://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/bio/documentaries/will-the-fish-return/the-sorry-story-of-georges-bank/">Georges Bank</a>, a major Atlantic fishing ground that stretches from Nova Scotia to southern New England, was closed to all fishing to protect plummeting groundfish stocks. The results were phenomenal. Researchers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icesjms.2005.04.005">found</a> that the biomass of commercially important fish species and some noncommercial species increased. By 2001 haddock populations had increased fivefold, yellowtail flounder populations had increased more than 800 percent, cod biomass had increased by about 50 percent, and scallop biomass had increased 14-fold. Scientists also <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/do-marine-protected-areas-really-work">confirmed</a> that the sea floor was recovering from trawl damage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187886/original/file-20170927-24154-d3uhoe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is intended to provide critical protection for species including deep-sea corals; sperm, fin and sei whales; Kemp’s ridley sea turtles; and deep-sea fish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.noaa.gov/news/first-marine-national-monument-created-in-atlantic">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Secretary Zinke has recommended allowing commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments. It is likely that high-impact or high-volume commercial fishing methods, such as trawls, would negatively impact some features of these reserves. </p>
<p>A major <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13022">study</a> published in 2014 analyzed 87 marine protection areas in 40 countries and found that the areas with higher fish biodiversity, biomass and abundance of sharks – features that together translate to enhanced ecological health – had five essential features. They prohibited fishing, enforced these restrictions, had existed for more than 10 years, covered large areas (more than 100 square kilometers) and were surrounded by deep water or expanses of sand that isolated them. </p>
<p>Zinke’s memo notes that fishing in these areas should be managed under the <a href="http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/laws_policies/msa/">Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act</a> of 1976. This law created <a href="http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/management/councils/index.html">Fishery Management Councils</a> that are charged with developing management plans for species harvested within their jurisdictions. The act directs that “Conservation and management measures shall prevent overfishing while achieving, on a continuing basis, the optimum yield from each fishery for the United States fishing industry.” </p>
<p>While this is certainly desirable in theory, optimum yield is a political goal, balancing multiple objectives, that does not necessarily address the maintenance of habitats, food web dynamics or intact ecosystems. And while the act has had many successes, it has not been able to reverse declines in some fisheries. <a href="https://massbay.mit.edu/publications/NEFishResources/Decline%20of%20Fisheries%20Resources.pdf">Some groundfish stocks in the northeast</a> continue to decline, as have some stocks of <a href="http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/fish/salmon.html">salmon on the Pacific coast</a>. Other challenges include high <a href="http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/Assets/Observer-Program/bycatch-report/NBR_FirstEditionUpdate1.pdf">by-catch</a> of nontarget species and range expansions of harmful invasive species such as <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/lionfish/welcome.html">lionfish</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, larger environmental changes, such as ocean <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601545">warming</a> and <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/resource-collections/ocean-acidification">acidification</a>, demand new approaches to management. They also could affect fishery managers’ ability to predict abundance and set catch limits that ensure sustained yields. </p>
<p>These larger-scale changes may reinforce the benefits of establishing refuges where fishing is limited. Closing these monuments to high-impact and industrial fishing practices could help protect or restore the habitats, species and other important environmental features that the monuments were created to safeguard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert B. Keiter serves on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He previously served on the boards of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and the Sonoran Institute.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Syma A. Ebbin receives funding from from the Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, the National Park Service and the state of Connecticut. She chairs the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Committee on Economics and Social Sciences, and serves as President of the Socioeconomics Section of the American Fisheries Society and a member of its Governing Board. Views expressed here are her own. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Moffa and Sarah Schindler do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Environmental law and natural resource experts respond to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s proposals to shrink four national monuments and allow logging, fishing and other activities in six more.Robert B. Keiter, Wallace Stegner Professor of Law, University Distinguished Professor, University of UtahAnthony Moffa, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, University of MaineSarah Schindler, Professor of Law, University of MaineSyma A. Ebbin, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845462017-09-27T00:56:29Z2017-09-27T00:56:29ZInterior Secretary Zinke invokes Teddy Roosevelt as model, but his public land policies don’t<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187635/original/file-20170926-11782-y7c1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public lands along the south fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/tqAn1d">BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4052225-Interior-Secretary-Ryan-Zinke-s-Report-to-the.html">recommendations</a> to shrink four national monuments and allow fossil fuel development activities on others is just the latest sign that this administration sees natural resource use and extraction as the highest priority for public lands. </p>
<p>I direct the <a href="https://sps.boisestate.edu/andruscenter/">Andrus Center for Public Policy</a> at Boise State University, named for former Idaho Governor and Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, who died on August 24, 2017 at age 85. One major focus of our research is wise use of public lands and collaborative land use decisions through conversations that give everyone affected a chance to voice their concerns. These values, which Andrus championed, align with mainstream conservation thinking. </p>
<p>Controversies over public lands and natural resources date back more than a century, with policies emphasizing development under some administrations and conservation under others. So the Trump administration’s focus on resource use is not new. </p>
<p>What I see as different this time is rhetoric that diverges completely from reality on the ground. We hear a lot about conservation and the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, but see proposals to <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/president-proposes-117-billion-budget-interior-fy2018">cut public land budgets</a>, promote <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/zinke-signs-secretarial-order-streamline-process-federal-onshore-oil-and-gas-leasing">oil and gas development</a> next to <a href="https://www.snewsnet.com/news/former-nps-rangers-superintendents-letter-zinke-oil-gas">protected areas</a> and open more <a href="http://www.hcn.org/issues/49.15/endangered-species-interior-overhauls-sage-grouse-conservation">sage grouse habitat</a> to mining. Some observers have labeled Zinke’s conservation pledges “<a href="http://westernvaluesproject.org/urban-cowboy-zinke-all-backwards-hat-no-cattle/">all hat and no cattle</a>,” recalling the old adage for people who pose as cowboys by dressing the part. Put another way, to these folks, Zinke so far is “all Roosevelt hat and no Roosevelt action.”</p>
<h2>Cecil Andrus’s conservation legacy</h2>
<p>Cecil Andrus, who called himself “<a href="https://www.idahopress.com/cavalcade/cecil-andrus-from-accidental-politician-to-idaho-legend/article_87ea4a44-5702-11e0-9bce-001cc4c03286.html">a lumberjack and a political accident</a>,” served four terms as governor of Idaho, from 1971-77 and 1987-95. He interrupted his second term to accept President Jimmy Carter’s nomination as secretary of the interior. Like Zinke today, Andrus was an avid hunter and fisherman. He fully appreciated other conservation values, such as protecting parts of the public land estate for all Americans – not something we’ve seen thus far in Zinke’s actions.</p>
<p>Andrus led the <a href="http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=30228">Carter administration’s effort</a> to conserve large portions of Alaska in the 1970s – the largest such act in American history, and the catalyst for passage of the <a href="http://www.akhistorycourse.org/modern-alaska/anilca">Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act</a>. This law created 104 million acres of parks and preserves, doubling the size of the U.S. national park system. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=474&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187637/original/file-20170926-22303-2es9eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Then-Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus (right) greets President Jimmy Carter, Nov. 4, 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/CORRECTION-Obit-Andrus/ac7259fb861041e79df03c2f3f61c535/12/0">AP Photo/Harrity, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Andrus was also centrally involved in protecting large swaths of Idaho, including the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sawtooth/recarea/?recid=5842">Sawtooth National Recreation Area</a>, the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/wallowa-whitman/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5238987">Hells Canyon National Recreation Area</a> and the <a href="https://www.idahoconservation.org/issues/land/wilderness/idahos-newest-wilderness-boulder-white-clouds/">Boulder-White Cloud Wilderness</a>. He left a legacy as a bipartisan problem solver who did not hesitate to use power in service of the public good. When he passed, we received condolences from many career employees at the Department of the Interior who worked with him.</p>
<p>In discussing “wise use” of resources, Andrus emphasized the “wise.” As he often <a href="http:www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article169280227.html">said</a>, “First you must make a living; then you must make a living that’s worthwhile.” This did not mean opposing all development, but rather what Andrus called <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1976/12/19/archives/andrus-built-reputation-on-environmental-and-landuse-stands.html">a “prudent” approach</a>.</p>
<p>“We developed America by giving away resources,” Andrus <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/cecil-d-andrus-85-interior-secretary-under-carter-is-dead.html">told</a> President-elect Jimmy Carter when they met. “When we got to the Pacific Ocean, we looked back over our shoulders and said, ‘Oh, my God, look what we’ve done.’”</p>
<h2>Whose greatest good?</h2>
<p>Conservationists, land managers and politicians have been debating how to reap the greatest value from public lands since the 1908-1913 <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300190380/wilderness-and-american-mind">battle</a> over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. Naturalist John Muir <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-john-muirs-incessant-study-saved-yosemite-56478">argued for protecting the scenic valley</a>, which he compared to “the people’s churches and cathedrals.” But Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, carried the day, asserting that providing a new water supply for San Francisco would achieve “<a href="http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/history/ep2/5/">the greatest good for the greatest number</a>.” </p>
<p>After Carter and Andrus left office in 1980, priorities swung sharply toward resource use under President Ronald Reagan and Interior Secretary James Watt III. Watt wanted to change the direction of public land policy, and did so with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/06/30/the-watt-controversy/d591699b-3bc2-46d2-9059-fb5d2513c3da/?utm_term=.21c758ad959c">proposals</a> that included more oil and gas leasing in wilderness areas and offshore and a proposed moratorium on new national parks. He <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/10/us/watt-quits-post-president-accepts-with-reluctance.html?pagewanted=all&mcubz=3">resigned under pressure</a> in 1983 after several tumultuous years.</p>
<p>Policies continued to oscillate under subsequent administrations, with Republicans favoring resource use and Democrats emphasizing conservation. As a candidate in 2016 Donald Trump did not say much about public lands, but seemed to provide cursory support for the idea that they should <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-dont-hand-federal-lands-to-states/">remain public and federally managed</a>, rather than <a href="https://theconversation.com/corporate-sponsors-at-yosemite-the-case-against-privatizing-national-parks-64097">being transferred to state control or privatized</a> as some advocates urged. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/187656/original/file-20170926-11782-11pa5sc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In August 2017 the Interior Department announced changes to federal sage grouse conservation plans to allow more energy development and livestock grazing on grouse habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-zinke-signs-order-improve-sage-grouse-conservation-strengthen-communication">DOI</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rhetoric and reality</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/can-ryan-zinke-balance-conservation-and-development-as-interior-secretary-69970">Ryan Zinke</a> began his tenure at the Interior Department with pure symbolism: He rode to the agency’s headquarters on horseback and professed to be a conservationist in the mold of Theodore Roosevelt. Then he took a different path. </p>
<p>Trump’s directive to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/26/presidential-executive-order-review-designations-under-antiquities-act">review</a> 27 national monuments established by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama included seeking public comments, and the comments rained in – <a href="http://www.hcn.org/articles/monuments-more-than-one-million-comments-were-submitted-to-interior-ryan-zinke">more than 1.4 million in total</a>. But the Interior Department never issued an official summary or analysis of those comments. <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/18/interior-secretary-ryan-zinke-recommends-altering-several-national-monuments-allowing-commercial-use/677583001/">Environmentalists</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/navajo-nation-bears-ears-2488342915.html">tribes</a> complained that Zinke gave them little time to present their views when he visited the <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/visit/bears-ears-national-monument">Bears Ears National Monument</a> in Utah, one of four that Zinke proposes to shrink. </p>
<p>Cecil Andrus would have sought out the views of all affected interests, though of course it is extremely unlikely that he would ever have undertaken this kind of review in the first place. Late in the Clinton administration, environmentalists asked me to to see whether Andrus would support designation of an Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument in southwestern Idaho. He replied that he would not because the proposal had not been vetted with all affected parties. </p>
<p>Interestingly, a recent <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2017/08/10/poll-voters-zinke-trump-national-monuments/">Morning Consult/Politico survey</a> found that respondents did not trust the Trump administration to make decisions on monuments, and instead thought the choices should rest with residents and local leaders in affected states. Presumably such an approach would have found broad support for monuments that were created with significant public involvement. This was true of almost all of the monuments under review, except possibly for <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante</a> in Utah, which many state officials contend President Clinton designated without consulting them. (There is, however, <a href="http://archive.li.suu.edu/docs/ms130/OH/leshy.pdf">evidence</a> to the contrary.) </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k5WeTDZMGZQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Interior Secretary Zinke’s recommendations to President Trump on national monuments.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What next for public lands?</h2>
<p>What can we expect next from the Trump administration? Some members of Congress, notably <a href="https://robbishop.house.gov/">Utah Rep. Rod Bishop</a>, continue to push for accelerated development on public lands – including coal, which is losing market share to <a href="https://theconversation.com/king-coal-is-dethroned-in-the-us-and-thats-good-news-for-the-environment-63910">cheaper and cleaner natural gas</a>. Officials who would support reasoned and planned development of oil and gas instead confront <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/news/business/2017/09/01/blm-to-auction-oil-and-gas-leases-next-to-utahs-dinosaur-national-monument-and-in-san-rafael-swell/">renewed controversies</a> over drilling near national parks and wilderness areas – an issue that was <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Islands-under-Siege-National-Politics/dp/0700606270">hotly debated</a> during the Reagan administration. </p>
<p>Trump has yet to appoint leaders for the Interior Department’s <a href="https://www.blm.gov/">Bureau of Land Management</a>, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">National Park Service</a> and <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service</a>. This vacuum is creating uncertainty about policy directions, fueled by <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/07/18/karen-budd-falen-the-bundy-familys-lawyer-may-be-trumps-pick-to-manage-federal-lands/">rumors</a> about possible picks. Meanwhile, Zinke asserted this week that 30 percent of Interior Department employees were “<a href="http://www.newser.com/story/249181/interior-secretary-30-of-my-staff-not-loyal-to-the-flag.html">not loyal to the flag</a>.” </p>
<p>This confrontational approach would have been alien to Cecil Andrus. “We can joust and even fight at times, but it must be from a position of mutual respect,” he wrote in his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cecil-Andrus-Politics-Western-Style/dp/157061122X">1994 memoir</a>. “The West is too precious to be used as a scorched-earth, all or nothing battleground.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Freemuth is the Executive Director of the Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise State University. He receives funding from USGS and BLM.. </span></em></p>Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke calls himself “a Teddy Roosevelt guy,” but supports many actions that critics call anti-conservation, such as shrinking national monuments and fast-tracking energy projects.John Freemuth, Professor of Public Policy and Executive Director, Andrus Center for Public Policy, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/816462017-07-27T02:00:45Z2017-07-27T02:00:45ZDo we have too many national monuments? 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179862/original/file-20170726-12222-1tye3sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Browns Canyon National Monument, Colorado.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/pjve2A">Bob Wick, BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: The following is a roundup of archival stories.</em></p>
<p>Under an order from President Trump, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-ryan-zinke-balance-conservation-and-development-as-interior-secretary-69970">Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke</a> is reviewing the status of <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-list-monuments-under-review-announces-first-ever-formal">27 national monuments</a> that were designated or expanded by presidents as far back as Jan. 1, 1996, using authority under the Antiquities Act. </p>
<p>Conservation groups and Native American tribes strongly support creating national monuments to protect sensitive lands and public resources from development or exploitation. But other stakeholders, including adjoining communities and businesses that use the areas in question, often view these steps as federal land grabs. The Interior Department <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-secretary-ryan-zinkes-statement-end-monuments-review-public-comment-period">received more than 1.2 million public comments</a> on the review. </p>
<p>Zinke has already said he will recommend <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/06/12/interior-secretary-recommends-delaying-a-final-decision-on-changing-bears-ears-national-monument/?utm_term=.8f27ac026c8b">scaling back Bears Ears National Monument</a> in Utah and has <a href="http://www.sltrib.com/home/5536538-155/interior-no-changes-needed-to-colorado">removed three sites</a> in Colorado, Idaho and Washington from the review list. He is scheduled to issue recommendations for the remaining 24 sites by August 24. They could include rescinding some national monument designations or altering boundaries. </p>
<p>Can the Trump administration do that, and what’s at stake? Our experts offer some answers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179860/original/file-20170726-27705-11oomoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visits the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon, July 5, 2017. The monument, designated in 2000 and expanded in 2017, is under review.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/WJ6ziA">Maria Thi Mai, BLM</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The law that started it all</h2>
<p>Congress passed the Antiquities Act in 1906 to give presidents power to protect land quickly, without having to get consent from Congress. Initially it was meant to preserve historically valuable archaeological sites in the Southwest that were being looted by “pot hunters” and scavengers. </p>
<p>But as Boise State University public policy scholar John Freemuth observes, presidents soon were using it much more expansively – and affected interests <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">pushed back</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Use of the Antiquities Act has fueled tensions between the federal government and states over land control – and not just in the Southwest region that the law was originally intended to protect. Communities have opposed creating new monuments for fear of losing revenues from livestock grazing, energy development, or other activities, although such uses have been allowed to continue at many national monuments.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179863/original/file-20170726-29425-1fwzl1t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A banner greets Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on his visit to Blanding, Utah, May 8, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Zinke-National-Monuments/351aa58928b14e3cbe9009a9aec5328f/14/0">AP Photo/Michelle Price</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Freemuth predicts that “future designations will succeed only if federal agencies consult widely in advance with local communities and politicians to confirm that support exists.” One question Zinke is considering is whether there was enough consultation in connection with the monuments on his list.</p>
<h2>The value of national monuments</h2>
<p>Today national monuments protect many unique resources. As law professors Michelle Bryan and Monte Mills of the University of Montana and Sandra B. Zellmer of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-plan-to-dismantle-national-monuments-comes-with-steep-cultural-and-ecological-costs-77075">point out</a>, looting is still a serious threat to prehistoric rock art and ruins in western states. </p>
<p>Monuments such as Bears Ears also protect places where indigenous people have lived, hunted and worshiped for centuries. The Bears Ears designation was requested by an intertribal coalition and approved after extensive consultation with tribal governments.</p>
<p>Many national monuments also protect scenic lands and areas that are critical habitat for endangered species, such as desert tortoises and California condors. In sum, the authors assert, Trump’s order:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“…makes no mention of the extraordinary economic, scientific and cultural investments we have made in those monuments over the years. Unless these losses are considered in the calculus, our nation has not truly engaged in a meaningful assessment of the costs of second-guessing our past presidents.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0CO1THBx6Ak?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, designated by President Barack Obama on Aug. 24, 2016, is one of the monuments under review.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ocean mega-monuments</h2>
<p>Under the Antiquities Act, monuments are supposed to be as small as possible in order to be consistent with conservation. But when the goal is to protect whole ecosystems, bigger is usually better. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov/">Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument</a>, which was created by President George W. Bush and expanded dramatically by President Barack Obama, is the largest ocean reserve on the planet, covering nearly 600,000 square miles. That’s a huge step forward for protecting marine life, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/obamas-hawaiian-marine-preserve-massive-potential-monumental-challenges-64584">a massive management challenge</a>, according to Pomona College professor of environmental analysis Char Miller:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I understand why [President Obama] is moving with dispatch (a mash-up of legacy building and opportunity knocks). But I worry that the speed with which these sites have been designated, and their disparate fiscal demands, has outstripped the executive branch’s capacity to underwrite them. My worry is magnified given the strong opposition in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to the president’s ready use of the Antiquities Act.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Can presidents unmake national monuments?</h2>
<p>If Zinke recommends abolishing or shrinking some national monuments, can President Trump do it by himself? The Antiquities Act doesn’t say anything on this point. </p>
<p>But when we asked four environmental law experts, their view based on other environmental statutes and legal opinions was that <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-monuments-presidents-can-create-them-but-only-congress-can-undo-them-76774">such acts would require congressional approval</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, they noted, Congress has reversed only 10 national monument designations in more than a century. More frequently, it has opted to give these sites even more protection by promoting them into national parks: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Congress has converted many monuments into national parks, including Acadia, the Grand Canyon, Arches and Joshua Tree. These four parks alone attracted over 13 million visitors in 2016. The aesthetic, cultural, scientific, spiritual and economic value of preserving them has long exceeded whatever short-term benefit could have been derived without legal protection.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Within the next month, the Trump administration may move to abolish or shrink up to two dozen national monuments. Our experts explain why these sites matter and whether presidents can undo them.Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Cities Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.