SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Ex-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke in August 2017 recommended reductions or other changes at 10 U.S. national monuments and the creation of three new ones, but President Donald Trump has acted on only a handful of the suggestions.
Democrats in Congress will put the issue back in the spotlight Wednesday in a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee.
Here’s a breakdown of Zinke’s recommended changes:
- Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. Recommendation: shrink size. Outcome: Trump cut size by about 85 percent to 315 square miles (816 square kilometers). Divided park into two areas.
- Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah. Recommendation: shrink size. Outcome: Trump cut size by nearly half, to 1,569 square miles (4,064 square kilometers).
- Gold Butte, Nevada. Recommendation: shrink size. Outcome: no action.
- Cascade Siskiyou, Oregon. Recommendation: shrink size. Outcome: no action.
- Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, New Mexico. Recommendations: protect grazing, ensure hunters and fishers do not lose access. Outcome: no action.
- Rio Grande Del Norte, New Mexico. Recommendation: protect grazing, ensure hunters and fishers do not lose access, co-manage land with tribes. Outcome: no action
- Katahdin Woods and Waters, Maine. Recommendation: allow more trees to be cut to thin forests without commercial logging, ensure snowmobiling and hunting are taken into account in a management plan. Outcome: no action.
- Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, in the Atlantic Ocean off the New England coast. Recommendation: allow commercial fishing. Outcome: no action.
- Pacific Remote Islands, in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. Recommendation: allow commercial fishing. Outcome: no action.
- Rose Atoll, in the Pacific Ocean near American Samoa. Recommendation: allow commercial fishing. Outcome: no action.
- Badger-Two Medicine area, Montana. Recommendation: new monument. Outcome: no action.
- Medgar Evers’ home, Jackson, Mississippi. Recommendation: new monument. Outcome: created by act of Congress.
- Camp Nelson, Kentucky. Recommendation: new monument. Outcome: designated as monument by President Trump.
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