Biden adds to the nation's list of national monuments during his term. There's an appetite for more

Source: AP

Updated 9:08 AM EST, December 8, 2024


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt did in 1906 what Congress was unwilling to do through legislation: He used his new authority under the Antiquities Act to designate Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument.

Then came Antiquities Act protections for the Petrified Forest in Arizona, Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley in California, and what are now Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks in Utah. The list goes on, as all but three presidents have used the act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources.

President Joe Biden has created six monuments and either restored, enlarged or modified boundaries for a handful of others. Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more designations before he leaves office.

The proposals range from an area dotted with palm trees and petroglyphs in Southern California to a site sacred to Native Americans in Nevada’s high desert, a historic Black neighborhood in Oklahoma and a homestead in Maine that belonged to the family of Frances Perkins, the nation’s first female cabinet member.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/national-monuments-biden-antiquities-act-51710af75ccb0f6a44c5da1e8287782c