Orrin Hatch
Figure 1. Some red cliffs in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Source: Bureau of Land Management.
As the Trump administration was slithering out the door in mid-January, it issued decisions that would put a new 4.5-mile-long four-lane divided highway through both the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and a particular stronghold for the imperiled Mojave desert tortoise.
Read MorePresident Trump signed an executive order on April 26, 2017, that directs Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review sixty-two of the last three presidents’ national monument proclamations, dating back to 1996. The review will result in a final report in four months that “shall include recommendations, Presidential actions, legislative proposals, or other actions consistent with law.”
The administration is interested in either totally abolishing, reducing in size, and/or weakening the protections for national monuments. Those prerogatives belong to Congress. If Trump tries, he’ll get a multitude of tweets saying, “See you in court!”
Read MoreHole in the Ground is just a run-of-the-mill extraordinary piece public land on the Deschutes National Forest in Lake County Oregon, where many times over many decades the author has camped either in solitude or with lovers and/or friends on the rim and enjoyed the, scenery, solitude and stars.
The 115th (2017–2018) Congress poses an existential threat to America’s public lands, which comprise 609 million acres across our fifty states. As Republicans have the majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, anti-public-land Republicans are well positioned to advance a wide range of truly horrible legislation....
The support for federal public lands to remain federal public lands and to be managed responsibly for the benefit of this and future generations is broad and deep, while opposition to federal public lands is narrow and shallow. Yet, as has been shown by a plethora of evil legislation, the only thing necessary for bad legislation to pass is for good people not to object.
I object. How about you?
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