With its stunning panorama of plateaus, canyons and red rock monoliths, the Colorado Monument near Grand Junction dazzles nearly one million visitors each year. This spectacular landscape with its magnificent views and scenic drives was designated a national monument and preserved for us by President Howard Taft on May 24, 1911 using the Antiquities Act.
Recently celebrating its 100th birthday, the popular Colorado National Monument — now a haven for cyclists, hikers, climbers and other outdoor recreationists — might never have existed if not for immediate action available to presidents through the Antiquities Act.
Passed by a Republican Congress in 1906, the Antiquities Act remains one of the most powerful federal tools to preserve open space, natural treasures and historical sites in the U.S. For over a century it has been used by eight Republican and seven Democratic presidents to create 131 national monuments — including the inspiring Grand Canyon, the world’s icon of freedom, the Statue of Liberty and many of the most visited and cherished places in America.
The Antiquities Act was signed into law by Republican Theodore Roosevelt to enable presidents to proclaim historic landmarks, structures and other objects and placesof scientific interest as national monuments — without the approval of Congress. Roosevelt immediately declared Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument, believing that a slow moving Congress would cause the country to lose the area to private development by the time they made it a national park. Soon after he moved to establish the scientific wonders of Arizona’s Petrified Forest and the prehistoric cultural artifacts of New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon as monuments.
Roosevelt’s insight was visionary: in the hundred years since, without the Presidential authority afforded by the Antiquities Act to protect public lands facing immediate threat, many of America’s most spectacular areas would never have been preserved nor eventually become national parks.
Used most recently in 2009 by President George W. Bush, the Antiquities Act has minimal costs associated with it. Presidents are permitted only to designate national monuments from existing federal lands that are already being paid for by the American taxpayer. Using the Act simply means that the government is designating an appropriate use for the land it already owns because of the resources it holds.
Earlier this year, the administration unveiled its landmark America’s Great Outdoors Initiative report which includes the recommendation to “engage the public to identify and recommend potential sites on existing federal lands for protection under the Antiquities Act.”
And what is it that Americans want most with regard to nature and open spaces? According to the recent Conservation in the West survey of 2200 Western states voters, Westerners cite the outdoors — mountains, wide open spaces, public lands and other natural features — as the thing they like most about living in the West. And fully 77 percent believe that we can protect land and water and have a strong economy with good jobs, without the need to choose one over the other.
Our National Park System makes up only a small portion — 3.6 percent — of all U.S. land. It is in fact smaller in total acreage than the national forest system, the national wildlife refuge system and the Bureau of Land Management land ownership. At the same time it supports $13.3 billion of local private-sector economic activity and 267,000 private-sector jobs.
Conversely, America is losing at least one million acres a year to development — roughly equivalent to the size of Delaware. Thankfully, the Antiquities Act gives us a way to respond rapidly to housing development threats in sensitive areas and to more long-term conservation threats like vanishing wildlife corridors.
National parks are America’s legacy to our children and grandchildren; preserving the national parks means that we are protecting this legacy for the future. One hundred years ago Theodore Roosevelt said, “The conservation of our resources is the fundamental question before this nation.” And with the Antiquities Act in hand, we have followed in his footsteps to protect the places we love. We should not stop now.
Andy Spielman practices energy and natural resources law and government relations in the Denver and Washington, D.C. offices of Hogan Lovells, an international legal practice. He can be reached at andy.spielman@hoganlovells.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
