Largest Rollback of Public Land Protections in US History

[Jimbuck]

President Trump Shrinks Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Largest Rollback of Public Land Protections in U.S. History

Two presidential proclamations erase almost 3 million acres of national monument land in Utah

ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com

 

[ActivelyDying]

Currently reading the wilderness warrior, TR is rolling in his grave.

 

[MTBackroads]

Largest reinstatement of public access that was removed by fiat in American history.
Every inch remains public land.

 

[EdP]

Every inch remains public land.

Exactly! Resource development is not only beneficial for the country as a whole but may also provide more access for hunting and recreation.

 

[ActivelyDying]

Please enlighten me as to how this is a positive thing from a conservation standpoint? Both of these monuments were already open to hunting and fishing. The shrinking of these boundaries while still remaining public (for now) opens them to resource extraction and development. The exact thing the antiquities act was put in place to protect. This isn't a Red vs. Blue thing, this land is for all Americans to recreate on and enjoy for generations and once harvested it will never be the same.

 

[akhunter3]

The very fact that Mike Lee was pushing for this means the land is unlikely to remain unexploited for very far into the near future

 

[idelkslayer]

The antiquities act was meant to protect cultural resources and is meant to be limited to the minimum amount of land required to protect those sites. It was not intended to protect large landscapes, that is what the wilderness act does.

I think there is a good argument to be made that the original designations overstepped and included too much surrounding land. If we want the land to also be protected it should go through the proper process in congress to receive wilderness designation.

Multiple use on public lands is generally a good thing. We should hold the agencies and industry accountable for doing resource extraction responsibly and cleaning up after themselves rather than trying to halt all production.

 

[ActivelyDying]

I think there is a good argument to be made that the original designations overstepped and included too much surrounding land. If we want the land to also be protected it should go through the proper process in congress to receive wilderness designation.

Multiple use on public lands is generally a good thing. We should hold the agencies and industry accountable for doing resource extraction responsibly and cleaning up after themselves rather than trying to halt all production.

And do you foresee these now surrounding, once protected lands being changed into wilderness designated areas just as fast as their antiquities protection was removed?

Who is going to hold the commercial agencies harvesting these lands accountable? Mike Lee sure isn’t.

 

[CJ19]

And do you foresee these now surrounding, once protected lands being changed into wilderness designated areas just as fast as their antiquities protection was removed?

Who is going to hold the commercial agencies harvesting these lands accountable? Mike Lee sure isn’t.

Why would mike lee have anything to do with it? What you are talking about would fall on the local, state, and federal regulatory agencies tasked with whatever activity that people seem to think is going to happen. I am not sure what people are expecting to happen.

 

[ActivelyDying]

Why would mike lee have anything to do with it? What you are talking about would fall on the local, state, and federal regulatory agencies tasks with whatever activity that people like is going to happen. I am not sure what people are expecting to happen.

I’m just pointing out that he has been a big proponent for the sell off and harvesting of our public lands, also he’s literally standing in the background during the signing of this. Why show up in support of this if he doesn’t have something to gain? There’s articles dating back to 17/18 with Lee pushing for this exact result.

What I’m expecting to happen is the exploitation of once protected lands. This would be a beautiful spot for a data center. I live in a state with tons of forestry management and have many friends that are loggers and arborists. I’m not advocating for stopping development and resource extraction everywhere however when I see an area which had previously been protected from the over consumption of humans where we could generationally recreate and enjoy now get potentially harvested and privatized in the future, I get fired up.

I’m not going to change any minds on this, interpret as you please. You do you boo.

 

[yfarm]

Please review the history of these monuments and how they were created before losing any more teeth. Clintons creation of Grand Staircase was characterized in 1996 as the most egregious example of executive overreach. These have never had congressional approval always executive orders, increase, decrease depending on who is in power. Under Obama and Biden motorized and non motorized access was limited from what had previously allowed under Clinton.