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
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