Tag Archives: National monument designations

Lawmaker: Trump Can Undo Obama’s National Monument Decrees

Rob BishopA top House Republican urged President-elect Donald Trump to rescind the Obama administration’s decisions to put millions of acres of land and ocean under stricter federal control by turning them into National Monuments. Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop wants Trump to cut back on the amount of land locked up through national monument designations. President Barack Obama has used the Antiquities Act to designate 265 million acres of public land as monuments while in office. “It’s never been done before and that’s why people are saying, ‘you can’t do it.’ Of course you can do it. It’s always been implied,” Bishop said. Read the rest here 13:58

Pacific Council on proposed Marine Monument

Today, the pfmc waterPacific Fishery Management Council sent a letter to President Obama expressing concern about “how these National Monument designations would impact our fishery management efforts in the west coast Exclusive Economic Zone.” In it, the Council stresses: 1. All of the areas proposed for designation already have significant protections from specific fishing activities.  For example – Essential Fish Habitat requirements under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act; and Cowcod Conservation Areas off the Southern California coast. 2. Fishery management decisions are best done in a thoroughly transparent public process rather than being done with limited involvement of certain stakeholders. 3. The social and economic importance of those areas cannot be understated. Read the letter from the PFMC, and the letter from the Council Coordination Committee by clicking here 07:44

White House, Greens target Atlantic fishing grounds

Fishermen and seafood-dependent communities in New England are battening down the hatches, fearing that an Obama administration move to create a giant Atlantic Marine Monument will spell the end to their way of life. Led by Earthjustice, the Conservation Law Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Geographic Society, and the Pew Charitable Trust, environmentalists are urging the White House to use the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate a 6,000-square-mile area in the  and off the coast of Massachusetts as a National Monument. Read the rest here 09:25