Interior Secretary Zinke’s Contradictory Pardon Process

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is playing games with our national parks and monuments, treating them like contestants on a reality show, to be voted off one at time. It is all part of a sham review of 27 national monuments ordered by President Donald Trump this past April. On August 24, Secretary Zinke is expected to make his final recommendations to President Trump, which could result in national monuments being closed or significantly altered. Over the past several weeks, Zinke has “pardoned” several of the sites on his official review list. While it’s hard to make heads or tails of what is actually driving these decisions behind the scenes, Zinke has offered brief public explanations. For example, Zinke cited the human history of “high-density Native American archaeological sites” in his exemption of  Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. For Craters of the Moon, the reasoning was its “living timeline of geologic history.” He argued that Hanford Reach in Washington state has “some of the best fishing and bird hunting around” for sportsmen and women. In his statement pardoning Grand Canyon-Parashant, he highlighted that the monument illustrates “the scientific history of our earth while containing thousands of years of human relics and fossils.” In his most recent pardoning of Sand to Snow, he cited the monument’s “incredible geographic, biologic, and archaeological history of our nation”—a statement which could very well apply to every national monument. If one were to set aside the fact that this review is driven by politics—not merit—and instead take Zinke at his word, it would follow that any monuments that allow for great hunting, have unique geologies, include areas of scientific interest, or honor the nation’s history will also be pardoned...more