Yesterday the Department of Interior published a Federal Register Notice regarding Trumps/GOP’s efforts to roll back protection on National Monuments that have been designated or increased in size from 1996 on. This includes 27 National Monuments, mostly in western states or in our oceans. You can read the notice here www.gpo.gov/ . For most of them you must comment before July 10, 2017, one (Bear Ears National Monument) has a due date of May 26, 2017.
Some suggestions if you do want to save these lands from development: This goes not just for the monument issue but for any NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) comments you make on any issue. 1. Write them yourself. It is easy to do a form letter from one of the many conservation groups and I am not saying you shouldn't, but if they get 1000 comments saying the same thing...they still only have to consider it/answer it once. 1000 different letters have to be gone through individually. 2. Make the comments as substantive as your knowledge allows you to do. Tell them you love a specific monument (if you love all of them, consider writing a letter for each of them) and why you love it/them but also tell them the economic benefits, environmental benefits, recreational benefits, endangered species being protected, or what ever else you have knowledge of. The better researched your letter is the more time it takes to consider it. 3. Above all stay involved in the process. Commenting early gives you and the environment better standing in the courts if this issue ever goes that far.
Thanks for reading...