national monuments

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National Monument Set to Reopen After Almost 5 Years

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico closed during pandemic

(Newser) - The Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument in New Mexico, which closed in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is reopening later this month. The US Bureau of Land Management and Cochiti Pueblo says the monument will reopen Nov. 21. Visitors will be required to make reservations online. The tribe will...

Biden: New Monument Is 'Good for the Country's Soul'

Move doubles Grand Canyon protected area

(Newser) - Declaring it good "not only for Arizona but for the planet," President Biden on Tuesday signed a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality. Coming as Biden is on a three-state Western trip, the move...

Biden Nears Blocking Mining With a National Monument

Grand Canyon plan would honor tribes

(Newser) - President Biden could announce as soon as next week his decision to set aside more than a million acres near the Grand Canyon as a national monument, a move that would protect it from uranium mining. A coalition of tribes, environmental groups, and elected officials have been calling for the...

New National Monument Will Honor Emmett Till

President Biden to sign proclamation this week, on anniversary of his birthday

(Newser) - President Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till , the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured, and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, per the AP . Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till...

In Southwest, 2 New National Monuments

President Biden to protect 514,000 acres of land in Nevada and Texas, one in nod to Native history

(Newser) - President Biden will move to protect some 514,000 acres of land in designating two areas in Nevada and Texas as new national monuments on Tuesday. The Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, comprising 506,000 acres in Southern Nevada, is "only the second national monument created specifically to protect...

Ute Indian Tribe Not Happy About Biden's New National Monument

Native American tribe says it was not on board with the plan

(Newser) - Update: A Utah-based Native American tribe that has frequently sparred with President Biden criticized the White House again for not adequately consulting its leaders ahead of this week's creation of a national monument on ancestral lands in Colorado, the AP reports. The Ute Indian Tribe is one of three...

Biden Reverting Bears Ears Monument to Original Size

Order will restore protections to 3 monuments cut by Trump

(Newser) - In what is fast becoming a presidential tradition, President Biden is planning to alter the size of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. The administration says Biden plans to restore Bears Ears, created by Barack Obama and severely downsized by Donald Trum p, to its original size of 1.36...

Trump Keeps His Focus on Monuments With Executive Order

Penalty for damaging monuments, statues, memorials could be 'up to 10 years' imprisonment'

(Newser) - Earlier this week, President Trump promised to sign a "very strong" executive order regarding the protection of monuments around the US, and on Friday he got his pen out. "I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues -...

Executive Order, US Marshals to Protect Nation's Monuments

Trump promises 'very strong' order this week

(Newser) - US marshals have been ordered to prep to protect the nation's monuments as part of a new effort by the Trump administration, also said to involve an upcoming executive order. In an email with the subject line "Attorney General Assignment," Marshals Service Assistant Director Andrew C. Smith...

Washington Monument Reopens After 3 Years
Washington Monument
Finally Reopens
Sep 19, 2019 2:00 AM CDT

Washington Monument Finally Reopens

It was closed for 3 years for repairs

(Newser) - After a three-year closure, the Washington Monument is reopening to the public. The 555-foot stone obelisk was closed in Sept. 2016 in order to replace the aging elevator and upgrade security systems. The monument will reopen to the public at noon Thursday, and first lady Melania Trump is expected to...

Here Are Your 5 New National Monuments

They tell of disaster, division, dinos

(Newser) - President Trump signed a bipartisan public lands bill Tuesday that will protect 1.3 million acres from California to Kentucky and establish five national monuments. But it's the lack of action on ex-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendations in a review of 27 national monuments that's drawing attention....

Senate Passes Sweeping Conservation Package

Bipartisan effort to protect wilderness, national parks being called most wide-ranging in 10 years

(Newser) - The Washington Post calls it a "paradoxical win," but that's not stopping members of the US Senate from high-fiving on their latest bill: a bipartisan conservation effort that protects 1.3 million acres of wilderness, creates or expands 10 national parks (including Joshua Tree and Death Valley),...

Shrinking National Monument Was About Oil After All: Report

NYT gets Interior Department emails that contradict Secretary Ryan Zinke

(Newser) - "Bears Ears isn't really about oil and gas," Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke said at a news conference in May 2017. Evidence from over 25,000 pages of department emails obtained by the New York Times shows that wasn't necessarily true. Last year President Trump called...

Patagonia Owner Sues Over Bears Ears: I Won't Let 'Evil' Win

Company sues to keep Trump administration from slashing national monument by 85%

(Newser) - Go to Patagonia's website and you're greeted with a message Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has deemed "nefarious" : "The President Stole Your Land." The California company is referring to President Trump's move to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, but...

Patagonia: 'The President Stole Your Land'

Company is suing to save Utah national monuments

(Newser) - "The President Stole Your Land," outdoor apparel firm Patagonia declared in a message on its website Monday, hours after President Trump confirmed the shrinking of two national monuments in Utah by around 2 million acres. Patagonia says it plans to sue the Trump administration to halt what it...

Trump Shrinks Size of 2 National Monuments in Utah
In Utah, 2 Huge Monuments
Just Became 5 Small Ones
the rundown
Dec 4, 2017 1:50 PM CST

In Utah, 2 Huge Monuments Just Became 5 Small Ones

President Trump undoes designations of Obama, Clinton, triggering a legal fight

(Newser) - President Trump traveled to Utah on Monday and delivered news dreaded by environmentalists and Native American groups but praised by those who accuse the federal government of overreach. Trump announced he is reducing the size of two national monuments spanning millions of acres in Utah—Bears Ears, which was so...

Trump Plans Have Dinosaur-Lovers Distressed

Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante is home to countless fossils—and 62 billion tons of coal

(Newser) - Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante contains an estimated 62 billion tons of coal. But it also has one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world, with more than two-dozen new species having been discovered in the 21 years since President Clinton designated it a national monument. So when...

Interior Chief Wants to Shrink 6 National Monuments

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante in Utah would be reduced under plan

(Newser) - Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that six of 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration be reduced in size, with changes to several others proposed, per the AP . A leaked memo from Zinke to President Trump recommends that two Utah monuments—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante—...

18 Stories