Trump Signs Exec. Order, National Monuments At Risk

Today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that calls for a review of all national monuments designated since 1996.

The effort might jeopardize Gold Butte and Basin and Range national monuments in Nevada along with the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah.

The review is part of a larger scrutiny of the Antiquities Act – a law that allows presidents to preserve federal lands.

U.S. Representative Dina Titus called the order an attack on public lands, and a “short sighted effort” to benefit special interest groups. Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke cast the move as a way to include local voices in the decision to designate monuments.