Antiquities Act Gone Bad

From the Publisher: Dennis Sun

Individuals who ranch or do business on public lands outside of the state of Wyoming are under the threat of the Antiquities Act.

As we come to the close of the current administration in Washington, D.C., this threat is magnified as it has been the practice of many presidents in the past, mostly Democrats, to leave a legacy for themselves. 

Since it was written in 1906, there have been many changes or interpretations of the law, but through the years, there have really been some abuses of the act. 

Many presidents don’t realize they are ripping the livelihood from many ranchers and users of public lands when they place large tracts of land under the Antiquities Act. It is politics and personal overreach by presidents at its worst.   

Currently, U.S. House Republicans are stepping up ways to reform the Antiquities Act before the Biden administration closes. They fear the president will move to designate millions more acres of public lands with the monument protection before he leaves.

The Congressional Western Caucus held a forum to discuss Congressional oversight of the act. The bill would require Congressional approval of new national monuments designated by the president within six months of the establishing order or the end of the incumbent Congressional term. 

I don’t see the bill going anywhere with a Democratic Senate or a presidential veto to overcome, but we can only hope.

The first president to use the executive authority to bypass Congress in order to protect specific sites of cultural and historic significance was President Theodore Roosevelt when he designated some 1,300 acres around Devil’s Tower.

In 1906, the proposal authorized the president – not the secretary of interior – to issue “public proclamations” to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest” on federal lands as “national monuments.” The important part was this proposal also limited the amount of land reserved for each monument “to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

I would imagine the ranchers around Devil’s Tower thought the land taken was excessive, and now presidents are designating millions more acres.

As I understand it, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to protect more lands around Jackson Hole where the elk feedgrounds are, the community of Teton County was against the designation as they had just seen all of the lands bought up by the Rockefeller family and turned into Grand Teton National Park. 

Congress ultimately approved legislation abolishing the Jackson Hole Monument, but Roosevelt vetoed the bill. Responding in kind, Congress refused to fund the Jackson Hole Monument for the next seven years. 

Then, President Harry Truman signed legislation to consolidate it with Grand Teton National Park, but Congress further restricted the president’s authority under the act by including a provision in the legislation which amended the act to prohibit the resident from establishing monuments within Wyoming. The rest is history.

Throughout the years, we’ve seen the Antiquities Act misused by presidents looking for a legacy, it is time for Congress to go back to the original intent and get away from the huge land grabs we’ve seen lately.