National Monument Review Coalition Letter

Wildflowers Blooming on Mount Baker / Mount Baker Summer Bloom
Wildflowers Blooming on Mount Baker / Mount Baker Summer Bloom
June 1, 2017 3:22 pm

June 1, 2017

President Donald J. Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

We applaud your decision to review the national monuments designated over the past 21 years and check years of executive overreach related to federal lands. This action is welcome news for locals whose voices have been drowned out by environmental groups, corporate interests and other special interests. Your historic executive order sets the stage for a transformation of the Antiquities Act from an executive bludgeon into the tool of preservation its authors intended.

National monuments are no longer about protecting specific historical and cultural sites. Instead, political
gamesmanship, outdoor recreation, climate change, and other motivations inconsistent with the original intent of the Antiquities Act rule the designation process.

These ulterior motives have expanded national monuments well beyond “the smallest area compatible” with protecting archaeological sites. According to National Park Service data, newly designated monuments averaged just 15,573 acres in 1906, when the Antiquities Act was passed. National monuments designated last year averaged 739,645 acres – more than 47 times the size of those created 110 years ago.

Expansive national monuments restrict access, weaken local economies, corrode rural communities and put the very archaeological resources they are supposed to protect at increased risk. Our communities, our country, and our national treasures deserve better.

Mr. President, your executive order was a good start – but it is just a start. You have an opportunity to return power to the people, right the wrongs of the past, and set a precedent that the designations of future presidents will be subject to review. We, the undersigned, support utilizing the criteria set forth in your executive order to reduce and rescind egregious national monuments where local support exists to do so.

Your leadership will reform the Antiquities Act into a law by, of and for the people, where executive oversight safeguards the environment, protects archaeological sites, creates abundant recreational opportunities, and secures the American dream for all of us.

Respectfully,

Sutherland Institute
The Coalition for Self-Government in the West
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Spark Freedom
Strata Policy
MacIver Institute
American Energy Alliance
Idaho Freedom Foundation
FIRM Country
American Lands Council
Freedom Works
American Legislative Exchange Council
ALEC Action
Fin & Feather Club of Maine
Stewards of San Juan County
Eagle Forum
Heritage Action for America
Americans for Prosperity
Citizens Against Government Waste
Associated California Loggers
Independent Institute
Montana Policy Institute
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Maine Woods Coalition
Utah Farm Bureau
Mississippi Center for Public Policy
The James Madison Institute
The Maine Heritage Policy Center
Nevada Lands Council