tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/federal-land-35176/articlesFederal land – The Conversation2019-04-24T06:25:28Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1159182019-04-24T06:25:28Z2019-04-24T06:25:28ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Caroline Fisher on the spin machines of #AusVotes19<p>While the major party leaders seem to have curated their images, University of Canberra assistant professor in communications and media Caroline Fisher says they can’t always control how these could be manipulated.</p>
<p>Fisher says there has been “a real attempt to soften” Scott Morrison as the “daggy dad” through candid personal selfies. In contrast, Bill Shorten has opted for more professional shots which portray him “in a more prime ministerial light” but “are almost otherworldly”.</p>
<p>She also discusses the way family, particularly their wives, have been used to increase warmth and relatability, as well as the use of negative messaging in the campaign. </p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Podcasts are often best enjoyed using a podcast app. All iPhones come with the Apple Podcasts app already installed, or you may want to listen and subscribe on another app such as Pocket Casts (click <a href="http://pca.st/BVa3#t=3m34s">here</a> to listen to Politics with Michelle Grattan on Pocket Casts).</p>
<p>You can also hear it on Stitcher, Spotify or any of the apps below. Just pick a service from one of those listed below and click on the icon to find Politics with Michelle Grattan.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p>
<p><strong>Image:</strong></p>
<p>Kelly Barnes(AAP)</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fisher says there has been "a real attempt to soften" Morrison through candid selfies. In contrast, Shorten has opted for more professional shots which portray him "in a more prime ministerial light".Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1034142018-09-21T10:42:09Z2018-09-21T10:42:09ZShrinking the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a disaster for paleontology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237378/original/file-20180920-129856-zeg34j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C0%2C1249%2C837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Landscape of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, one of the most abundant fossil fields in the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">P. David Polly, 2018</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the early 1980s, paleontologists Jeff Eaton and Rich Cifelli started digging for fossils in one of the most inaccessible regions of the United States: the Kaiparowits Plateau of southern Utah. They were looking not for dinosaurs, but for ancestral mammals. Mammals almost litter the fossil record after dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, but they were rare before then. Eaton and Cifelli ventured onto the Kaiparowits to comb its rocks for mammals’ tiny teeth and bones.</p>
<p>Not only did these two scientists find fossil mammals, they uncovered one of the most complete sequences of vertebrate fossils anywhere in the world from the <a href="https://www.livescience.com/29231-cretaceous-period.html">time when dinosaurs still ruled</a>. What Eaton and Cifelli discovered in Utah showed that life on land was unexpectedly becoming more diverse at a time when life in the oceans was being decimated by chemical changes.</p>
<p>Their work demonstrated the tremendous paleontological potential of the Kaiparowits Plateau and the nearby Circle Cliffs and Grand Staircase regions. Rocks in this remote region span the entire Mesozoic Era – the so-called Age of Reptiles – and by the early 1990s were producing scientifically important fossils from all three of its periods, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237376/original/file-20180920-129847-pmwe9v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Almost 2 million acres, about a third of 1 percent of federal land, were included in the monument.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">P. David Polly, 2018</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Sept. 18, 1996, President Bill Clinton <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-1996-09-23/pdf/WCPD-1996-09-23-Pg1788.pdf">set aside these federal lands</a> as <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands/utah/grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a>. The goal was to protect their paleontological treasures, preserve their hundreds of archaeological sites and keep one of America’s last wildernesses intact.</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. Paleontologists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aPOrK60AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like me</a> know that the still-pristine Grand Staircase-Escalante region has divulged only a fragment of its paleontological story.</p>
<p>But the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-modifying-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monument/">Trump administration has systematically cut</a> entire chapters of that narrative <a href="http://vertpaleo.org/getattachment/What-is-Vertebrate-Paleontology/Fossil-Preservation-Law-in-the-US/GrandStaircasePaleoCuts.jpg.aspx">out of the national monument</a>, including key segments of what Clinton’s original proclamation called “one of the best and most continuous records of Late Cretaceous terrestrial life in the world.” The changes not only are at odds with scientific goals for which the monument was created, but researchers contend they endanger the unique natural heritage that belongs to us all.</p>
<h2>What national monument designation means</h2>
<p>National monuments are not memorials to famous Americans. They’re a special category of federal land, used to conserve special historical, archaeological and scientific resources. </p>
<p>In the 1906 <a href="https://www.nps.gov/history/local-law/FHPL_AntiAct.pdf">Antiquities Act</a>, Congress granted the president power to establish national monuments on government land <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-antiquities-act-has-expanded-the-national-park-system-and-fueled-struggles-over-land-protection-56454">to protect these types of resources</a>. In total, 640 million acres are held in trust for the American people. The majority of this land is available for mixed uses, including wildlife conservation, livestock grazing, mining and petroleum extraction, scientific study and recreation, as mandated by Congress in the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/regulations/files/FLPMA.pdf">Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976</a>. </p>
<p>National monuments come into play when historical or scientific resources on those lands are endangered by one or more of those uses or when special attention would enhance them. It was the value of the paleontological resources and the pristine condition of the wilderness around the Kaiparowits Plateau that triggered Bill Clinton’s Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamation in 1996.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236986/original/file-20180918-158237-aiud65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Skeleton of the carnivorous dinosaur Teratophoneus being airlifted out of its excavation site on the Kaiparowits Plateau.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">P. David Polly</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Monument status confers funding through the <a href="https://www.blm.gov/programs/national-conservation-lands">National Conservation Lands System</a> to restore, maintain and develop designated national heritage resources on federal land. At Grand Staircase, these funds help pay for paleontological field crews, for helicopter lifts of excavated specimens from inaccessible areas and for conservation of those specimens back in the lab. Just as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm">Fort McHenry National Monument</a> in Maryland would not realize its value as a historic site if its buildings were not maintained, so too would Grand Staircase fail to live up to its potential if its fossils were not studied.</p>
<p>The management plan for the original Grand Staircase placed priority on paleontological research. It established the position of monument paleontologist to coordinate field researchers from around the world, to survey and document paleontological sites, and to ensure that fossils collected from the monument are placed in museums and universities where they remain the property of the federal government and are accessible to those who wish to study them.</p>
<h2>Shrinking the site</h2>
<p>But now Eaton and Cifelli’s original dig sites are no longer part of the monument. President Donald Trump cut them last December, along with more than 700 other documented paleontological sites.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237375/original/file-20180920-129844-1omuvar.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">Map of Trump’s cut from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (bolded areas) with number of known excluded paleontological sites in each.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">P. David Polly, 2018</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on a recommendation by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-201700881/pdf/DCPD-201700881.pdf">Trump issued a proclamation</a> that reduced Grand Staircase to almost half its original size. His text asserts that the cuts “take into account” the findings of two decades of paleontological research in order to determine “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects of … scientific interest.”</p>
<p>Roughly 1 in 3 of the thousands of sites discovered at the monument have now been excluded. And many more sites remain to be found because large areas have not been fully surveyed. The change in status means that new research in the excluded areas will have lower priority and less support.</p>
<p>In August, the Department of Interior issued a <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=renderDefaultPlanOrProjectSite&projectId=94706">draft management plan</a> for the areas that have been removed from monument, now available for public comment. It offers options that range from protecting paleontological resources with the same rules as before, to actively prioritizing mineral and gas extraction in the excluded areas. The former would be great for science; the latter could be devastating. Some fossil-rich areas of the excluded parts of the monument could be targets for shale gas extraction, others could be singled out for coal or uranium mining. </p>
<p>Depending on the outcome of the current management plan consultation, areas now excluded from the monument may not receive the same priority for conservation and research. </p>
<h2>Why ongoing protection is needed</h2>
<p>Paleontology, like any science, rests on the principle of verifiability. Science is a process in which scientists revisit old data time and time again to verify earlier findings, to ask new questions and to apply new technology.</p>
<p>The scientific process means that paleontologists routinely return to sites where major discoveries were made in the past. For example, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDpVAZEefHY">when <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> was discovered in 1902</a>, scientists had no way of precisely dating the rocks in which it was found nor did they have any inkling that it was one of the last dinosaurs standing before a massive asteroid crashed into the Earth. Only by <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080424140400.htm">applying radiometric dating</a> and rare earth element analysis at those classic sites more than 100 years later have we come to understand the demise of dinosaurs.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=864&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/236988/original/file-20180918-158234-hr8zeu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=864&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 skull of the new ceratopsian dinosaur Machairoceratops, whose discovery site at Grand Staircase has been excluded from the monument.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0154403">Lund et al., 2016</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Paleontologists work at Grand Staircase because of its unique fossil record, of course, but also because they know the sites will remain intact. Verifiability has become increasingly important; every paleontologist has faced a situation where they cannot answer a pressing question because a key fossil has been misplaced or a critical site has been destroyed.</p>
<p><a href="http://vertpaleo.org/the-Society/Governance-Documents/Bylaw-on-Ethics-Statement.aspx">Scientific ethics</a> dictate that we curate scientifically important specimens in accessible public repositories like museums and do our best to preserve the sites they come from. Places like national monuments and national parks that prioritize protection of fossil sites are therefore prime research areas. That permanent protection has been rescinded from more than 700 sites in active research areas is almost inconceivable to paleontologists.</p>
<p>Because of the potential impact the cuts are likely to have on science, the <a href="http://vertpaleo.org/">Society of Vertebrate Paleontology</a> – of which I am the current president – joined with Grand Staircase Partners and Conservation Lands Foundation in a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/12/05/document_gw_08.pdf">lawsuit to reverse them</a>. The case’s argument is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/president-trumps-national-monument-rollback-is-illegal-and-likely-to-be-reversed-in-court-88376">presidents do not have the authority</a> to unprotect resources at national monuments and that scientifically important paleontological resources have indeed been excised. The case is currently pending in U.S. District Court.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237327/original/file-20180920-129874-8lu2w9.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">This ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur’s Latin name is <em>Grypsosaurus monumentensis</em>, in honor of its discovery at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/petechar/39130823740">Charles R. Peterson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vertebrate fossils are rare, so much so that each one usually tells a unique part of the story of life. Mammal species like the ones that Eaton and Cifelli discovered in the 1980s were probably spread over much of the continent in the Cretaceous, but precious few of them have ended up in the fossil record and only a few of those have been discovered. Grand Staircase is an extraordinary place with an unusual density of these rare fragments of life’s past, one where their geological context is still intact. That’s why paleontologists are concerned about its future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>P. David Polly receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, UK Natural Environment Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. He is president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. </span></em></p>Twenty-two years ago, President Clinton established Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for paleontological conservation. As the Trump administration shrinks its borders, that mission is jeopardized.P. David Polly, Professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Biology, and Anthropology, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845272017-10-06T00:55:13Z2017-10-06T00:55:13ZBundy trial embodies everything dividing America today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189081/original/file-20171005-9797-1p0w1t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A supporter of Cliven Bundy protests in Nevada. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/John Locher</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s that time of year again: The Bundys are <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2017/08/the_bundys_--_cliven_sons_ammo.html">going to trial</a>. </p>
<p>This fall, brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and their father, <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2017/08/the_bundys_--_cliven_sons_ammo.html">Cliven</a>, will face charges over a standoff with federal officials in a dispute over federal lands in Nevada.</p>
<p>Many are wondering if they’ll be let off the hook. The two Bundy brothers were acquitted in an October 2016 trial for a different standoff in Oregon. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/bundy-brothers-acquitted-in-takeover-of-oregon-wildlife-refuge.html?mcubz=0">jury’s</a> “not guilty” verdict on conspiracy charges for the Oregon standoff struck much of the public as shockingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/28/oregon-militia-standoff-bundy-trial-not-guilty-reactions">lenient</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/law/faculty_and_staff/directory/eisenberg_ann.php">law professor</a> who researches rural land use and juries, I’ve found that both conflicts over public lands and jury decisions often bring up the same question: Who gets to decide what justice is in America?</p>
<h2>Geography and juries</h2>
<p>Geography matters in the U.S. justice system. </p>
<p>The Bundy trials – and the trials of their supporters, several of whom also <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-the-bundys-and-their-heavily-armed-supporters-keep-getting-away-with-it">walked free</a> for the 2014 standoff earlier this year – have made this clear. Trial outcomes <a href="http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=djclpp">can vary</a> depending on where they take place. The Bundy trials to date may well have gone differently in front of juries from Manhattan or Miami.</p>
<p>Part of the geographical subtext is that the Bundy family is not alone in their <a href="http://scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=faculty_lawreviews">anti-federal sentiment</a>. <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/265429-poll-most-westerners-support-federal-land-policy">Most westerners</a> want to see federal lands stay federal and people are rightly disturbed by the tactics of the Bundys and other militant, anti-federal <a href="http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3d2722zk">“Sagebrush Rebels.”</a> Yet, <a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/land_use/2016/01/as-bundys-malheur-takeover-ends-the-real-concerns-of-sagebrush-country-ranchers-linger.html">other scholars</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2980887">and I</a> have argued that there is a kernel of truth to their complaints. </p>
<p>Namely, the Bundys and their supporters claim that the federal government is <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/20140709/war-west-bundy-ranch-standoff-and-american-radical-right">“tyrannical.”</a> A less militant version of that sentiment is that federal agencies could be more fair, consistent and inclusive with local communities in the region. The Department of Interior manages about <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.641.3335&rep=rep1&type=pdf">one-fifth</a> of the land in the United States through the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Monitoring and enforcing regulations on this vast territory is <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2423831">difficult</a>. Many western communities think federal agencies manage public lands <a href="http://scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=faculty_lawreviews">arbitrarily or unfairly</a>. </p>
<p>A frequent criticism of these agencies, who have a daunting mandate with limited resources, is that they are inconsistent. Another is that they can be unpredictable. For instance, the Bureau of Land Management <a href="https://georgetownlawjournal.org/articles/170/response-essay-personhood-rationale/pdf">allowed</a> Cliven to graze his cattle illegally for 20 years, which could look like tacit approval. Local communities have also felt excluded from agency decision-making or <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2715090">looked down on</a> by federal representatives.</p>
<p>In an unusual move, one juror in the October 2016 trial <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/11/transcript_of_juror_4s_emails.html#incart_2box">spoke out</a> after the trial. The anonymous juror accused the prosecution of “arrogance” and an “air of triumphalism,” which may suggest a view of federal representatives as <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2930217">elitist outsiders</a>. However, he also emphasized that “not guilty” did not mean “innocent.” He insisted that the acquittal was not a sign that the jury agreed with the Bundys’ stances. Nonetheless, the <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/09/ammon_bundys_lawyer_argues_for.html">populist-cowboy</a> tone of the Bundy trials underscores the subjectivity of justice; one person’s terrorist may be another person’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-the-bundys-and-their-heavily-armed-supporters-keep-getting-away-with-it">folk hero</a>.</p>
<h2>Race and juries</h2>
<p>Race also plays a role in the Bundy cases. </p>
<p>Some observers shocked by Ammon’s and Ryan’s 2016 acquittal noticed that their jury <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-malheur-bundy-occupation-acquittal-20161028-story.html">entirely comprised white people</a>. “All-white jury” tends to be used synonymously with “unjust jury.” </p>
<p>Like geography, <a href="http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=nulr_online">race matters</a> to juries. It’s <a href="http://www.albany.edu/scj/documents/Eisenberg_Garvey_Wells_2001_JLegSt.pdf">not as simple</a> as “white people vote this way and black people vote that way,” or that all-white juries are automatically unfair. However, social science studies have shown that jury demographics <a href="http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1349&context=heinzworks">affect outcomes</a>. For instance, white jurors are substantially <a href="http://www.albany.edu/scj/documents/Eisenberg_Garvey_Wells_2001_JLegSt.pdf">more likely</a> to favor the death penalty in murder cases. Generally, <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-904597.pdf">more diverse juries</a> are believed to deliberate for longer, make fewer factual errors and discuss more information, including questions of race. </p>
<p>Yet, studies have shown that courts in the United States often don’t do a good job of making juries <a href="http://juries.typepad.com/files/assembly_statement_draft_4-29-09-1.pdf">representative</a> of the population. “All-white” can also mean unrepresentative. Unrepresentative, in turn, suggests undemocratic. Race and geography interact, too: What counts as representative depends on the local population, and different courts have <a href="http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1739&context=journal_articles">different procedures</a> for picking their juries. </p>
<p>In the 2016 Bundy trial, the optics were troubling for many. At a time when people of color comprise most of the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/how-many-americans-are-unnecessarily-incarcerated">prison population</a>, it may have looked as if the all-white jury in this case was lenient with the Bundys. The Bundys’ <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-morton-1218-20161217-story.html">white privilege</a> was questioned as law enforcement’s relatively gentle treatment of them at the 2014 standoff stood in contrast to the police killings of <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/08/06/541929782/policing-ferguson-policing-america-the-unrest-over-the-death-of-michael-brown">Michael Brown</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/nyregion/eric-garner-police-chokehold-staten-island.html">Eric Garner</a> that same year. Majority-white juries have also seemed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/us/police-shooting-trial-philando-castile.html?mcubz=0">lenient with police officers</a> accused of killing people of color. Thus, it is not a stretch to infer from this case confirmation of a dual legal system: a lenient one for white people and a harsh one for people of color, both of which exclude people of color from decision-making.</p>
<p>Juries are <a href="https://www.law.ua.edu/lawreview/files/2011/07/The-Jurys-Constitutional-Judgment.pdf">designed</a> to be a check on government overreach. Yet, when juries are not representative, they may become just another vehicle by which the powerful wield influence. In this light, the Bundys’ October 2016 trial by all-white jury does look problematic, as only <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/OR">76.4 percent</a> of Oregon’s population identifies as “white alone.”</p>
<p>The Supreme Court has addressed questions of how juries represent the population and established some standards to ensure minimal representativeness. For example, the pool of people called to the courthouse for jury selection (known as “the venire”) must represent a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1974/73-5744">“fair cross-section of the community.”</a> However, juries consistently underrepresent <a href="http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/diamond/papers/BeyondFantasy.pdf">people of color, the young, the poor</a> and <a href="https://www.wacdl.org/files/jury-diversity-article">other groups</a>. This lack of representativeness in turn affects outcomes and undermines the <a href="http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1094&context=publicpolicypublications">public’s trust</a> in the criminal justice system.</p>
<h2>Law and distrust</h2>
<p>So much is at play in the trials of the Bundys and their supporters: the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/">debatable phenomenon</a> of white, rural, male, working-class alienation; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/opinion/in-oregon-myth-mixes-with-anger.html?mcubz=0">longstanding conflicts</a> over public lands; the role of race in the criminal justice system; and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/rural-america/?utm_term=.e8701eb35475">deep racial and geographical divisions</a> that weigh on the country. </p>
<p>Perhaps the clearest theme is that distrust of our legal institutions abounds, fueled by both the perception and reality of being excluded.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann Eisenberg 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>As with our politics today, geography and race matter in the US criminal justice system. Should they?Ann Eisenberg, Assistant Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/770752017-05-03T14:05:20Z2017-05-03T14:05:20ZTrump’s plan to dismantle national monuments comes with steep cultural and ecological costs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167600/original/file-20170502-17271-10mw5hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Trump administration will review the status of The Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, one of the country's most significant cultural sites. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/31828924051/in/photolist-QuBydB-PrppLt-QuBz4V-QuBzpK-QuBzf6-Prpsr8-QuBzmZ-QuBy2e-QuBAZZ-PrppVg-QBCb6S-Prpq1M-QuBzrt-QETUbV-QuBztx-QBCbbm-PrppAD-QuBzV4-PrpoL2-QBCbgS-QuBA7M-QuBytX-QuByoX-QuBAd8-QuByC4-Q6Wtw1-Q6Wty5-QuBAhg-PrpqB6-QuByyX-Q6WtD5-QuBARH-Q6WtLQ-QuBAwp-Q6WtPf-PoFAdh-Q6WtJW-Prpsix-PrpsAr-PrpsG8-PrpoD8-DnRyMd-QF2rBd-QjZnrm-QQGYZ5-QF2qWL-QF2qzy-QQGZym-QQGXMA-9jALaD">Bureau of Land Management</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the few days since President Trump issued his <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/26/presidential-executive-order-review-designations-under-antiquities-act">Executive Order on National Monuments</a>, many legal scholars have <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-monuments-presidents-can-create-them-but-only-congress-can-undo-them-76774">questioned the legality</a> of his actions under the Antiquities Act. Indeed, if the president attempts to revoke or downsize a monument designation, such actions would be on <a href="http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRBlog.cfm?idBlog=13FE94FA-F7D4-935A-3C895B78AC18B27F">shaky, if any, legal ground</a>.</p>
<p>But beyond President Trump’s dubious reading of the Antiquities Act, his threats also implicate a suite of other cultural and ecological laws implemented within our national monuments. </p>
<p>By opening a Department of Interior review of all large-scale monuments designated since 1996, Trump places at risk two decades’ worth of financial and human investment in areas such as endangered species protection, ecosystem health, recognition of tribal interests and historical protection.</p>
<h2>Why size matters</h2>
<p>Trump’s order suggests that larger-scale monuments such as Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, or the Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana, run afoul of the Antiquities Act because of their size. Nothing is farther from the truth. The <a href="http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title54-chapter3203&edition=prelim">act</a> gives presidents discretion to protect landmarks and “objects of historic or scientific interest” located within federal lands. Designations are not limited to a particular acreage, but rather to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”</p>
<p>Thus, the size and geographic range of the protected resources dictate the scale of the designation. We would not be properly managing the Grand Canyon by preserving a foot-wide cross-section of its topography in a museum.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of larger-scale monuments when it <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/252/450/case.html">affirmed</a> President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1908 designation of the Grand Canyon as “the greatest eroded canyon in the United States” in Cameron v. U.S. in 1920. Cameron, an Arizona prospector-politician, had filed thousands of baseless mining claims within the canyon and on its rim, including the scenic Bright Angel Trail, where he erected a gate and exacted an entrance fee. He challenged Roosevelt’s sweeping designation and lost, spectacularly, because the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-grand-canyon-changed-our-ideas-of-natural-beauty-56204">Grand Canyon’s grandeur</a> was precisely what made it worthy of protection. </p>
<p>By downsizing or dismantling a monument, Trump would be intentionally unprotecting the larger-scale resources our nation has been managing as national treasures. The loss in value would be considerable, and compounded doubly by the lost cultural and ecological progress we have made under related laws. </p>
<h2>Cultural costs of downsizing</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/320301">Antiquities Act</a> has long been used to protect important archaeological resources. Some of the earliest designations, like El Morro and Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, protected prehistoric rock art and ruins as part of the nation’s scientific record. This protection has been particularly critical in the Southwest, where looting and pot hunting <a href="http://graphics.latimes.com/utah-sting/">remain a significant threat</a>. Similar interests drove the creation of several monuments <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-national-monuments-pictures-20170426-htmlstory.html">subject to</a> Trump’s order, including <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-1996-09-23/pdf/WCPD-1996-09-23-Pg1788.pdf">Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument</a>, <a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/WCPD-2000-06-12/pdf/WCPD-2000-06-12-Pg1317.pdf">Canyon of the Ancients National Monument</a> and <a href="https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/2016bearsears.prc_.rel_.pdf">Bears Ears National Monument</a>. Thus, any changes to those monuments mean less protection for – and less opportunity to learn from – these archaeological wonders.</p>
<p>But we have learned that our past and our natural world are not merely matters for scientific inquiry to be explained by professors through lectures and field studies. Instead, scientists, archaeologists and <a href="https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/uploads/so3342_partnerships.pdf">federal land managers</a> recognize the need to understand and foster continuing cultural connection between indigenous people and the areas where they and their ancestors have lived, worshipped, hunted and gathered since time immemorial. Many of these places are on federal lands.</p>
<p>While other recent designations recognized the present-day use of monument areas by tribes and their members, Bears Ears National Monument was the first to specifically protect both historic and prehistoric cultural resources and the ongoing cultural value of the area to present-day tribes. Unlike prior monuments, Bears Ears came at the initiative of tribal people, led by a <a href="http://bearsearscoalition.org/">unique inter-tribal coalition</a> that brought together many area residents and garnered support from over 30 tribes nationwide. This coalition also sought <a href="http://www.bearsearscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Bears-Ears-Inter-Tribal-Coalition-Proposal-10-15-15.pdf">collaborative tribal-federal management</a> as a way to meaningfully invigorate cultural protection. As a result, President Obama also established the Bears Ears Commission, an advisory group of elected tribal members with whom federal managers must meaningfully engage in managing the monument.</p>
<p>This national investment in cultural collaboration brings great value – a value utterly ignored by Trump’s order. In fact, under that order, Bears Ears faces an expedited (45-day) review because, as Secretary Ryan Zinke <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/04/25/press-briefing-secretary-interior-ryan-zinke-executive-order-review">noted in a recent press conference</a>, it is “the most current one.” Though the order includes opportunity for tribal input, the Bears Ears inter-tribal coalition <a href="http://bearsearscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Letter-to-Sec-Zinke-on-NM-Review_Signed_FINAL.pdf">has yet to hear from Secretary Zinke</a>, notwithstanding numerous requests to meet. </p>
<h2>Ecological costs of downsizing</h2>
<p>Because they preclude development, national monuments are also critically important for ecological protection. In fact, they often serve the objectives of other federal requirements, such as the Endangered Species Act. </p>
<p>For example, Devils Hole National Monument provides the only known habitat for the endangered Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis). This has meant that groundwater exploitation from nearby development is restricted to protect Pupfish habitat. Similarly, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is home to an array of imperiled wildlife, including the endangered desert tortoise and the endangered California condor, along with many other native species like desert bighorn sheep and peregrine falcons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167607/original/file-20170502-17271-1s4txpr.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">The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is among the national monuments vital to enforcing the Endangered Species Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/8878316625/in/photolist-ewxGdz-S5VRt4-qVx4n8-RJDo9C-qfWL4G-ewxEst-ewAQXd-cQBtZ-6U72JX-4QFPxq-ewAVid-ewxTMt-ewxHAg-pG8m4u-i1ZXLz-S5VS54-odHHmM-pCJYJC-peM7uy-gYRDzZ-gYRkDP-gYQXBo-gYSkce-aCydKL-gYRqgg-gYR72k-gYQHCF-pW763p-qdxtQt-gYRr22-gYQanE-cVF4P5-gYRMMa-pgMGyp-gNkXbF-oUw4cu-4WDCFM-gYQZVR-qdxgDp-ewxB7k-ewAZDC-ewxS66-ewAJdh-fBBwpi-ewANCm-ewAWDd-ewxFN8-ewAYjC-4QFPUo-ewAQwu">Bureau of Land Management</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within the protective reach of a national monument, we are also likely to find important stretches of land officially designated by federal agencies as protected land, such as scenic wilderness, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/nlcs_web/sites/id/st/en/prog/NLCS/wilderness_study_areas0.html">wilderness study areas</a>, the Bureau of Land Management’s areas of critical environmental concern (<a href="https://www.blm.gov/or/plans/wopr/ACEC.php">ACEC</a>) or the Forest Service’s research natural areas (<a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rmrs/research-natural-areas">RNAs</a>). Each monument’s care is thus interwoven with the management of these other ecologically designated areas, something plainly apparent to the communities and agency officials long working with these lands.</p>
<h2>Zinke’s backyard</h2>
<p>These costs may hit <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-ryan-zinke-balance-conservation-and-development-as-interior-secretary-69970">close to home for Zinke</a> since the Missouri River Breaks National Monument, located in his home state of Montana, is on the chopping block. President Clinton designated this 375,000-acre monument in 2001 to protect its biological, geological and historical wealth from the pressures of grazing and oil and gas extraction. Clinton noted that “[t]he area has remained largely unchanged in the nearly 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and William Clark traveled through it on their epic journey.” </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/167602/original/file-20170502-17263-13iv3hr.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">Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will need to assess the cultural and ecological value of a national monument in his home state of Montana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The monument contains a National Wild and Scenic River corridor and segments of the Lewis and Clark and Nez Perce National Historic Trails, as well as the Cow Creek Island ACEC. It is the “fertile crescent” for hundreds of iconic game species and provides essential winter range for sage grouse (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/22/fewer-than-500000-sage-grouse-are-left-the-obama-administration-says-they-dont-merit-federal-protection/?utm_term=.7be54c439471">carefully managed to avoid listing</a> under the ESA) and spawning habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon. Archaeological and historical sites also abound, including teepee rings, historic trails and lookout sites of Meriwether Lewis.</p>
<p>The size of the Missouri River Breaks monument is thus scaled to protect an area in which lie valuable objects and geographic features, and a historic – even monumental – journey took place. And every investment we make in the monument yields a twofold return as it supports our nation’s cultural and ecological obligations under related federal laws. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, while Trump’s order trumpets the possibility that monument downsizing will usher in economic growth, it 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><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors 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>Trump wants to scale back national monuments on federal lands in the name of boosting the economy. But this would undo decades of investments to manage our cultural and ecological resources.Michelle Bryan, Professor of Law, University of MontanaMonte Mills, Assistant Professor of Law & Co-Director, Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic, University of MontanaSandra B. Zellmer, Professor of Law, University of Nebraska-LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/711302017-01-23T00:41:34Z2017-01-23T00:41:34ZWill Trump negotiate a better coal deal for taxpayers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153724/original/image-20170121-30949-j97jlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump promises to revive the coal industry in part by opening up mining on federal lands, yet economists found that increasing royalties on public land would lead to more mining elsewhere, including Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Steve Helber</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s here. The first week of the Trump administration. And it promises to be a busy one.</p>
<p>On the energy front, Trump has an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/america-first-energy">ambitious agenda</a> for his first days in office. Some policy changes will take time to execute. Others can happen with the stroke of his pen (and a tweet).</p>
<p>Ending the moratorium on leasing federal land for coal mining – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/01/14/obama-administration-set-to-announce-moratorium-on-some-new-federal-coal-leases/?utm_term=.64857ec8c3df">put in place last year</a> by the Obama administration – is one change we can expect very soon. When it happens, it will mark a return to business as usual in the federal coal program.</p>
<p>Here’s the problem. Business as usual is broken. The <a href="https://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/coal_and_non-energy.html">federal coal program</a> is supposed to manage vast federally owned coal reserves, which account for more than <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-comprehensive-roadmap-reform-federal-coal-program">40 percent</a> of U.S. coal production, “for the benefit of current and future generations.” But the program has, for a long time, been <a href="http://www.hcn.org/blogs/goat/shortchanged-are-coal-companies-paying-fair-market-value-for-leases-on-public-lands">criticized</a> for selling taxpayers short. For this and other reasons, new federal leases were <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-jewell-launches-comprehensive-review-federal-coal-program">put on hold</a> last year until a comprehensive review of the program could be completed.</p>
<p>A follow-up <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-comprehensive-roadmap-reform-federal-coal-program">scoping report</a> released earlier this month from the Department of the Interior lays out a blueprint for major reforms that would help taxpayers receive fair compensation and better account for the environmental impacts from coal mining. The outgoing secretary of the interior has argued that <a href="https://www.blm.gov/node/8505">“the only responsible next step is to undertake further review and implement these commonsense measures.”</a> </p>
<p>It’s now up to the Trump administration to decide what to do next. Sticking with the status quo will cost taxpayers. It could also have big implications for the environment. </p>
<h2>What’s the problem (and how can we fix it)?</h2>
<p>If you are an American taxpayer, you are a part owner (in a manner of speaking) of vast coal reserves. In addition to the coal covered by existing leases, which can support production at current levels for 20 years, there’s much more coal in federally owned ground.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153705/original/image-20170120-30764-ky7oxq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://energy.usgs.gov/GeneralInfo/EnergyNewsroomAll/TabId/770/ArtMID/3941/ArticleID/961/New-Powder-River-Basin-Wide-Coal-Assessment-of-Recoverable-Resources-and-Reserves.aspx">US Geological Survey; Bureau of Land Management; Energy Information Administration</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the government (or, more precisely, the Department of the Interior) auctions leasing rights and collects royalties from the sale of “your” coal, it is supposed to make sure it receives fair compensation on your behalf. But the government is falling short. Critics have convincingly argued that leasing auctions are <a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/659801.pdf">fundamentally noncompetitive</a> and undervalue the rights to mine federal lands. </p>
<p>Problems with the royalties that mining companies actually pay are <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/page/files/20160622_cea_coal_leasing.pdf%22%22">well-documented</a> as well. Overall, it’s been <a href="https://www.northernplains.org/powder-river-basin-coal-leasing-prompts-ig-gao-reviews-washington-post-june-24-2012/">estimated</a> that undervaluation of coal could have cost taxpayers as much as US$30 billion in lost revenue over the past 30 years.</p>
<p>For the <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/190010/concern-global-warming-eight-year-high.aspx">majority of Americans who are worried about global warming</a>, uncompensated environmental damages should present a much bigger concern. In a <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6316/1096.full">recent study</a>, my coauthors and I calculated the climate change-related damages from burning Powder River Basin coal (which accounts for most of federal coal production). We use the monetized climate damages of $44 per ton of CO2 based on the median U.S. government <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climatechange/social-cost-carbon">social cost of carbon</a>. We found the estimated climate impacts are about six times the current market price. Royalty payments <a href="http://www.rff.org/research/publications/putting-carbon-charge-federal-coal-legal-and-economic-issues">could be increased</a> to reflect some of these damages. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153706/original/image-20170120-5234-r6vpd2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6316/1096.full?ijkey=.7HMzxFLG0FD.&keytype=ref&siteid=scihttp://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6316/1096.full?ijkey=.7HMzxFLG0FD.&keytype=ref&siteid=sci">Kenneth Gillingham, James Bushnell, Meredith Fowlie, Michael Greenstone, Charles Kolstad, Alan Krupnick, Adele Morris, Richard Schmalensee, James Stock</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The recently released scoping report lays out a series of proposed changes that could address these problems, such as calculating royalties using the private market price of coal and adjusting royalty rates to account for climate change impacts.</p>
<h2>Winners and losers under federal coal reform</h2>
<p>In <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6316/1096.full?ijkey=.7HMzxFLG0FD.&keytype=ref&siteid=sci">our paper</a>, we highlight knowledge gaps that need to be filled before we can definitively assess the impacts of potential coal program reforms. These gaps notwithstanding, there’s a lot we can learn based on information we already have. </p>
<p>In this spirit, economists Jim Stock and Ken Gillingham have been <a href="http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/federal_minerals_leasing_reform_and_climate_policy">hard at work</a> looking at the likely impacts of increasing the royalties paid per short ton of federal coal sales. They examine how a royalty increase or “adder” would impact future U.S. coal production. To put these royalty adders into perspective, a $20 increase per ton would capture roughly 20 percent of estimated climate change damages in 2030. </p>
<p>The figure below summarizes their 2030 projections. It should come as no surprise that, as federal royalties increase, coal production on federal lands falls. Some of these reductions are offset by increased production at other US coal mines which are not subject to these federal royalties. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153707/original/image-20170121-30959-1gew4mv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Including an ‘adder,’ or higher royalty fee that recognizes the cost to society and the environment of coal, would slow coal production and shift coal production slightly to nonfederal lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.hamiltonproject.org/papers/federal_minerals_leasing_reform_and_climate_policy">Kenneth T. Gillingham, James H. Stock</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A somewhat surprising finding: Increasing federal royalties would increase national mining employment, even as total domestic coal production falls. That’s because the largest projected increases in production are found in Northern Appalachia and the Illinois Basin. Because these regions are relatively labor-intensive, increased employment in these areas more than offsets reductions in employment on federal lands.</p>
<p>Increased royalties would also benefit taxpayers and the environment. Through 2030, Gillingham and Stock estimate that additional royalties under an increase starting at $15.80/ton and ramping up to $20/ton by 2030 for Powder River Basin coal could exceed $35 billion (undiscounted). The higher price for coal would also lead to power sector emissions reductions on the order of three percent in 2030, they found.</p>
<p>Those who stand to lose the most under reform are the handful of companies that have invested in mining federal coal and the services (such as railroads) that serve them. Electricity consumers would see a very small increase in electricity prices. Gillingham and Stock calculated that under the $20 royalty increase, wholesale electricity prices in 2030 increase by approximately 0.1 cents/kWh, which is less than one percent of current average retail prices.</p>
<h2>We snooze, we lose</h2>
<p>As President Trump took the oath of office last Friday, the White House website was transformed to reflect the arrival of the new administration. References to climate change were <a href="http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-trump-climate-change-20170120-story.html">removed</a>. During Senate hearings for his Cabinet, there was no indication this administration intends to make action on climate change a priority. </p>
<p>But a refusal to acknowledge the existence of this problem does not make the problem go away. On the contrary, halting progress toward a meaningful policy response just makes it a harder hill to climb when members of a future administration inevitably resolve to roll up their sleeves and deal with the problem. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153755/original/image-20170122-30955-lkz2af.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">A Wyoming open mine in the Powder River Basin, where much of the coal production on U.S. federal lands is located.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mypubliclands/29721783112/in/photolist-MpgHgW-MhpUCq-MpgHay-MhpUjE-M1wvZQ-MhpTBC/">Bureau of Land Management</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the same vein, the time to act on federal coal program reform is now. Momentum has been building behind the
“<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?324886-1/interior-secretary-sally-jewell-remarks-energy-agenda">open and honest conversation about modernizing the coal program</a>.” Judging by the hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPage&currentPageId=93180">comments</a> filed so far on the scoping report, there is broad-based support for meaningful reform. </p>
<p>If the Trump administration decides to turn a deaf ear on this conversation, we will be in a different place when a future administration picks up this ball. More leases will be auctioned in the coming years, and more federal coal will be covered by long-term contracts. Hitting the snooze button will deliver more good deals to the coal companies operating on federal lands, at the expense of taxpayers and the environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meredith Fowlie 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>One of Trump’s first orders of business on energy will likely be to reopen federal lands to coal mining, which would be a bad deal for taxpayers and the environment.Meredith Fowlie, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California, BerkeleyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.