Clinton declares new national monuments

January 11, 2000
Web posted at: 1:35 p.m. EST (1835 GMT)

In this story: Off-limits to development Location of the new national monuments Opponents blast president's 'unilateral' move Antiquities Act controversy 'I feel very sad and very helpless' RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Arizona (CNN) -- At one of the most revered natural wonders in the United States, President Bill Clinton made a controversial announcement Tuesday designating three new national monuments to protect scenic lands, including one off the Grand Canyon's North Rim.

VIDEO Proposing new national monuments also creates controversy, as CNN's Natalie Pawelski explains. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K   MESSAGE BOARD Saving the environment   RESOURCES Department of Interior Map

"This is not about locking lands up; it is about freeing them up from the pressures of development and the threat of sprawl," Clinton said.

Critics, though, say the federal government has usurped congressional power and grabbed the land without local input.

Clinton used the federal Antiquities Act of 1906 -- legislation initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt -- to establish the new national monuments.

After taking a helicopter and walking tour of the North Rim, the president headed to the scenic Hopi Point to announce he has accepted Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's recommendation to designate two national monuments in Arizona, one in California and expand an existing monument in California.

Babbitt is a former governor of Arizona.

Although the land covered by the proposals is owned by the U.S. government, a national monument designation would ban mining, timber cutting or other large-scale development, limiting the income of many area residents involved in those industries.

The White House says the purpose of the monument designation is to protect unique natural, scientific and historic features in each of the sites.

While environmentalists have applauded the move, saying it would protect land amid the rapid expansion of the Southwest, Republican lawmakers and some business interests have attacked it.

"I think this is a blatant attempt by President Clinton to use the Antiquities Act for political purposes to essentially shut out the democratic process," says R.J. Smith, senior environmental scholar with the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington.

Using executive privileges accorded him under the Antiquities Act, Clinton:

• Designated just over 1 million acres as the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument to protect the land off the Grand Canyon's North Rim.

The new monument, which encompasses an important watershed for the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, is practically the same size as the adjacent 1.1 million-acre Grand Canyon National Park, which Roosevelt declared a national monument in 1908 -- 92 years ago Tuesday.

• Designated a 71,000-acre Agua Fria National Monument on public land north of Phoenix, Arizona, to protect prehistoric rock inscriptions and American Indian ruins.

• Announced a third national monument, California Coastal, covering thousands of small islands, rocks and reefs off the state's Pacific coast that serve as a habitat for wildlife such as sea otters and birds.

• Expanded the Pinnacles National Monument, south of San Jose, California, by 8,000 acres to better protect spire-like rock formations that rise up to 1,200 feet high.

When the proposals were announced by Babbitt in December, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination, said Clinton had no right to make such a move "unilaterally."

Arizona officials have urged Clinton to include state residents in any such decision, while Republican lawmakers say Clinton is using his executive privilege to bypass the Republican-led Congress.

McCain, Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull and other Arizona lawmakers rebuked Clinton in a joint letter for creating the two national monuments in their state.

"We join in again requesting that you forgo unilateral federal action in declaring further monuments in Arizona, and instead work with us as we involve the people of Arizona in a preservation effort that allows the public a voice in the process," said the letter, dated January 7.

George Frampton, chairman of the president's Council on Environmental Quality, wrote back, saying there has been plenty of public input.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt says the president should use his executive authority to continue Theodore Roosevelt's tradition of protecting the Grand Canyon 235K/22 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

Babbitt and Interior Department officials have held more than 60 meetings on the proposed Arizona monuments, including two public hearings, Frampton wrote.

Sen. Frank Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said Clinton should allow Congress to consider such moves, arguing the president should not use the Antiquities Act to unilaterally declare places national monuments.

Murkowski said recently that he might consider legislation this year to require public input in situations that did not constitute an emergency.

A spokeswoman for the committee said the Antiquities Act, created to protect lands being ravaged, was not meant to be used the way Clinton was using it.

"When it was started back under Teddy Roosevelt, they were emergency powers. We've come a long way since then," she said. "These are already public lands ... If they feel they need further protection, why not at least bring it to Congress?"

As Babbitt made his recommendations last month, he noted that all presidents since Theodore Roosevelt, except Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush, used their authority to protect federal lands under the Antiquities Act.

Other defenders of the Act also say it has helped preserve some of the country's national -- and natural -- treasures.

"The Statue of Liberty was protected through the Antiquities Act, (as were) Devil's Tower (National Monument in Wyoming) and Acadia (National Park in Maine)," said Tom Kieran of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Said White House spokesman Jake Siewert: "Congress has the power to overturn it, but they never have."

Residents of Fredonia, Arizona, which is near the proposed Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, fear federal restrictions associated with national monument status will replace their quiet lifestyle with a hectic, tourist economy.

"I thought we were going to have some input," said Fredonia Mayor Joy Jordan. "But things have not worked out that way at all. So I feel very sad and very helpless."

Observers say the situation represents a struggle between local governments -- which often serve residents by making use of natural resources -- and federal officials who want to serve all citizens by preserving those same resources.

"These two things are clashing as development is increasing," said Professor Sheldon Kamieniecki of the University of Southern California. "I think as we move into the century that question is going to be how do you balance the two?"

Just before the last presidential election in 1996, Clinton made a similar designation at the Grand Canyon and created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

The move angered Utah lawmakers who said it would hurt the economy and block development of a key coal mine.

In the largest presidential designation of land, Jimmy Carter used the Antiquities Act in 1978 to set aside 56 million acres in Alaska. Much of that territory is now national park land.

Correspondents Jim Hill, Natalie Pawelski and Chris Black, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

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