Montana Monument May Expand Under Trump Administration

Huddled behind his white pickup truck in northwestern Montana, Roland Kennerly stuffs his hands into his coat pockets. “Oh, this wind,” he says. “It’s starting to snow now.” The road had turned into a muddy slop leading towards a pocket of socked-in mountains and roadless grassland known as the Badger-Two Medicine area. “You can only get in there by walking or by horseback, so it keeps it in its natural state,” Kennerly says. “I hope it stays that way, for my kids and my kids’ kids.” Badger Two-Medicine is sacred to Kennerly’s tribe, the Blackfeet Nation. It’s part of their creation story. This summer Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended it become a new national monument, and President Donald Trump is expected to announce decisions about monuments in December. That designation would protect more than 200 square miles of federal land from any future oil and gas development. But Trump called these large monuments “massive federal land grabs” by his Democratic predecessors, and Zinke recommended the president reduce the size of some of those monuments, including Bear’s Ears in Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada. The interior secretary has yet to comment publicly on the newly proposed monument, and his spokesperson said the department has nothing new to say about it. So the recommendation has a lot of people scratching their heads...more

 Zinke for Governor? Zinke for President? That's what the enviros think:


But Land Tawney, president of the Montana-based sportsmen’s group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, says it felt like Zinke was proposing a new national monument for more politically ambitious reasons. “I think the secretary has talked about wanting to come back to Montana after he’s done being secretary and potentially run for governor,” Tawney says. Protecting public lands is a big issue in Montana. While Zinke has encouraged mining, drilling and reducing the size of national monuments elsewhere in the country, he’s left existing national monuments in Montana alone and he’s urged mining bans near Yellowstone National Park. Those proposals imply Zinke has protected public lands in his home state, according to Tawney. “I think the people of Montana hold our special places very near and dear,” he says. “If you do not protect those places I think it’s a political nightmare for you in this state.” David Parker, a political scientist at Montana State University, says Zinke may even want to run for president some day. “Whatever his ambitions are, Montana is important to that moving forward,” Parker says. “You can’t say you’re going to be on a national stage and be a serious candidate if you don’t have strong support in your home state.”

Here's how EcoWatch covers it:

Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke wants to reshape and repurpose 10 national monuments for drilling, logging and other commercial activities, but you wont see the same recommendations for existing monuments in Montana—Zinke's home state. Notably, if the former Congressman's plans take shape, Montanans might even find themselves with a new, 130,000-acre national monument in their state. Tucked in the second-to-last page of the interior secretary's review of national monuments over the summer was the suggestion of creating three new monuments, including the Badger-Two Medicine area next to the Blackfeet Nation reservation by Glacier National Park in Montana. National Parks Conservation Association spokesman Michael Jamison said it was confusing that Zinke is recommending protection for the Badger-Two Medicine while proposing to shrink other national monuments.

Enviros aren't the only ones "scratching their heads" and who find this "confusing". In his report Secretary Zinke found designations where the Antiquities Act definition of "objects" and "smallest area compatible" were either "arbitrary or likely politically motivated" and that "boundaries could not be supported by science or reasons of practical resource management." Zinke also found that "certain monuments were designated to prevent economic activity…rather than to protect specific objects."

Is his recommendation for the 230,00 acre Badger-Two Medicine really meet the "smallest area compatible" mandate of the Antiquities Act? I guess since he glossed over that fact with the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in NM, he feels comfortable in doing the same for a new monument in Montana.  In other words, he's prepared to abuse the law just like Obama.