January 3, 2017 — President Obama is settling accounts before leaving office, and then some. This week he delivered a parting gift to Democratic Senator Harry Reid and parting shot at Utah Republicans by designating two new national monuments in their respective states.
Desert and canyon landscapes in the West are among the most majestic in America, and Mr. Obama has cited cultural treasures as a pretext for consecrating 1.3 million acres in southeastern Utah (Bears Ears) and 300,000 acres in southern Nevada (Gold Butte). The real goal is to shield land-use decisions from public input.
Sixteen presidents have invoked the Antiquities Act to establish 152 national monuments, though rarely in defiance of state and local lawmakers as President Obama has now done. The 1906 law was intended to let Presidents act expeditiously to protect national treasures from desecration. Mr. Obama has used it to wall off more land than any of his predecessors.
The Antiquities Act instructs the President to designate “the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected,” yet Bears Ears is nearly twice the size of Rhode Island and one million acres bigger than Utah’s largest national park. Most desert land around Gold Butte is already protected, but the Obama Administration says the national monument is needed as a wildlife corridor for desert bighorn sheep and the Mojave Desert tortoise. Don’t expect predator species to respect the sanctuary habitat.