April 28, 2017 — President Trump’s call to review 24 national monuments established by three former presidents puts in limbo protections on large swaths of land that are home to ancient cliff dwellings, towering sequoias, deep canyons and ocean habitats where seals, whales and sea turtles roam.
Trump and other critics say presidents have lost sight of the original purpose of the law created by President Theodore Roosevelt that was designed to protect particular historical or archaeological sites rather than wide expanses. Here’s a quick look at five of the monuments on the list:
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument:
Designated by President Barack Obama in September 2016, the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine national monument consists of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the New England coast. The designation was widely praised by environmentalists as a way to protect important species and habitat for whales and sea turtles while reducing the toll of climate change.
The designation closed the area to commercial fishermen.
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument:
This remote monument northwest of Hawaii’s main islands was created by President George W. Bush in 2006 and was quadrupled in size last year by President Obama. The nearly 583,000-square-mile safe zone for tuna, the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and thousands of other species is the world’s largest marine protected area, more than twice the size of Texas.
Obama pointed to the zone’s diverse ecology and cultural significance to Native Hawaiian and early Polynesian culture as reasons for expanding the monument.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald