According to two people with knowledge of the programs, President Joe Biden plans to expand two of California’s two national monuments by about 130, 000 acres, according to a report from The New York Times on Thursday.
The Times reported that” the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument did both receive new boundaries to protect land of historical significance for Native American tribes.”
President Barack Obama created the two statues using the 1906 Antiquities Act. The commander in chief has the authority to formally grant more public lands enhanced federal protections by executive order under the century-plus-old law.
While a national park is a big swath of land protected by an act of Congress, area with a “national monument” title protects a” particular natural, cultural or historical have”. But, the 1906 law mandates that the restored area become” the smallest area that is in line with the proper care and management of the objects to get protected.”
President Obama had a routine of breaking the government’s requirements to create quasi-national parks without the consent of the legislature. President Biden is carrying on the history.
More than 340, 000 hectares of the Angeles National Forest and more than 4,000 hectares of the opposite San Bernardino National Forest are currently covered by the San Gabriel monument, which was established south of Los Angeles in 2014. The statue would already be ranked 23rd in terms of length, even more than Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park, if it were one of the 63 national parks. Biden, according to The New York Times, wants to expand the statue by another 110, 000 acres.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, created in 2015, protects almost 331, 000 acres, now an place roughly the same size as Hawaii’s Volcanoes National Park. Trump plans to expand the monument by roughly 14, 000 hectares.
Collectively, the almost 130, 000- hectares growth would restrict more land than eight of the nation’s smallest regional parks combined. The second statue established under the Antiquities Act was Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, which encompasses about 1, 300 hectares.  ,
In addition, President Biden abused the Antiquities Act in his first season as leader to reopen the Utah-based Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which were both within the Obama administration. More than 3 million acres, or more than the national area at Montana, are preserved in the two landmarks as a whole.
The developments of the landmarks demonstrate why the Supreme Court needs to reexamine the Antiquities Act’s abuse by the president. However, the high bench in March rejected two cases that suggested it might be possible for justices to re-evaluate the government’s authority to bypass Congress by granting hundreds of thousands of acres monument status.
In the first week of his presidency, President Biden immediately declared making lock out 30 % of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030 a major priority. In addition to the dramatic rise of national statues, the initiative, dubbed” 30 by 30,” has prominently featured a new public lands program for” restoration leases” and restrictions on oil and gas development in resource-rich areas of the nation.
Designating open lands under monument status , strips , the several- use mandate that allows residents to leverage and more easily recreate on common property. Most national forests, for example, allow timber harvesting and hold less regulations for recreation.
Residents of Colorado’s western slope are concerned about potential plans to design a new national monument over the Dolores River. An area nearly twice the size of Rocky Mountain National Park would be covered by the new monument’s roughly 400, 000 acres.
” It absolutely, positively could be a threat”, said Sean Pond, a local resident, told The Colorado Sun last month. As more people start visiting, more and more restrictions are put in place over time, according to the history of monument designations. We could start losing access. These are public lands that my family and our neighbors have used for generations. A lot of local people have a lot of concerns”.
