"The Antiquities Act does not give the federal government unlimited power to lock up millions of acres of land and water, and it's time that we ended this abusive practice", Trump declared.
Some, including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, have hailed the order as the end of "massive federal land grabs" by presidents dating to Bill Clinton.
The Sand to Snow National Monument was proclaimed by President Barack Obama in 2016 and covers 154,000 acres.
Trump ordered that a report on Bear Ears be delivered within 45 days and that a full report is done within 120 days. Within hours of the designation, the National Park Service was in the process of opening offices in the Katahdin region while inviting visitors to discover the monument's "rivers, streams, woods, flora, fauna, geology, and the night skies that have attracted humans for millennia".
Zinke will develop recommendations for monuments to be rescinded, resized or modified - actions which would likely face legal challenges by environmental groups.
National monuments might not seem like a local issue, but to quote a great American songwriter - "This land is your land, this land is my land". "This executive order does not remove any monuments".
The Bears Ears National Monument, which Utah Governor Gary Herbert has expressed a desire to roll back protections on. He promises an open-minded approach and says he remains opposed to selling any federal land or transferring it to state or local control.
The local monument, spanning 100 miles from the Lake Berryessa area to Snow Mountain in the Mendocino National Forest, features trails, waterfalls, lakes, whitewater rapids and stunning vistas that include Sacramento in the distance. Each agency has policies for protecting the land while also allowing some public use.
We lend what power we have to the Center for Western Priorities and its Executive Director Jennifer Rokala in the demand to stop Trump from the review, which will be used as an attempt to "eliminate or shrink national monuments", Rokala said in a press statement.
What is a national monument?
Traffic stop education mandate passes North Carolina House
The superintendent of the state's Department of Public Instruction will be required to conduct periodic audits. Candidate filing dates also would be moved to December of the previous year.
The order was signed at the Department of the Interior today. Bears Ears protects Native American cultural heritage and sacred sites. Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart in Washington, along with Sen.
Bears Ears is near where Texas-based EOG Resources Inc has been approved to drill. And activists are anxious that the area, which is rich in natural resources, could be offered up to oil companies if it is de-listed. Trump said the lawmakers lobbied him for the order.
"Show me the money", said Ashley Korenblat from Public Land Solutions. But he said the Antiquities Act is due for a review, claiming that in recent years it has been too restrictive - placing public lands off-limits to grazing, fishing, mining and outdoor recreation.
Four of Utah's five magnificent national parks began as national monuments.
"Previous administrations have wrongly forced states and schools to comply with federal whims and dictates for what our kids are taught", Trump said Wednesday.
"If the modification was significant, we'll look at that", Zinke said.
"The governor knows the back ways and logging roads of the ME forest better than the state troopers who used to patrol Aroostook, Penobscot and Piscataquis counties", Steele said.
"I am absolutely against transfer and sale of public lands. I am not advocating for it to be un-designated", Nelson said Wednesday.
The president framed the order as a way to return power to states and individuals, after former President Obama and his predecessors blocked development on hundreds of millions of acres of federal land and water by creating monuments. Some ranchers are hopeful that the Cascade-Siskiyou will be included in Zinke's review, and that Obama's expansion will be rolled back. Dean Heller praising the decision to review what he called the Obama administration's "failed Washington-knows-best approach" to land management.
Utah's Speaker of the House Greg Hughes says he's "thankful we have a president that is sensitive to the needs of those of the West." .
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