New national monuments proposed
Copyright 2000 MSNBC
December 22, 2000
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Dec. 22 — Five areas, from a grassy plain in California to coral reefs in the Virgin Islands, would become national monuments under recommendations Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt sent to President Bill Clinton Friday. Conspicuously absent was the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists want to protect from oil drilling but which President-elect George W. Bush believes should be opened to secure reliable energy supplies for the country.
Babbitt’s action does not ensure that the areas will be given monument status, though Clinton has not turned down any Babbitt monument recommendation so far.
CLINTON HAS created 11 national monuments and expanded two, using a 1906 law to bring new restrictions to millions of acres, mostly in the West. Critics — including President-elect George W. Bush — call Clinton’s actions unnecessary and unilateral, though they acknowledge that overturning a monument designation in Congress is highly unlikely.
Monument designations would give greater protection to the areas, which are already owned by the federal government. The new protections would likely include bans or restrictions on vehicle use and prohibitions on mining and oil drilling.
ARCTIC REFUGE WON’T BE PROPOSED
Babbitt’s action does not ensure that the areas will be given monument status, though Clinton has not turned down any Babbitt monument recommendation so far.
Babbitt’s office last week said he does not plan to advise monument status for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing that more effective protection could come from Congress.
Some environmentalists believe Babbitt has backed off designation so as not to anger Republicans, who might otherwise push harder to reverse earlier national monuments created by Clinton.
THE NOMINEES ARE...
Babbitt nominated these sites on Friday:
Upper Missouri River Breaks, 377,000 acres along 149 miles of the river in north-central Montana. The sparsely populated area is largely the same as it was when Lewis and Clark came through in 1805, making the first non-Indian sighting of bighorn sheep.
Pompeys Pillar, a 150-foot sandstone outcropping along the Yellowstone River east of Billings, Mont. Capt. William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition carved his name in the pillar in 1805, leaving the only remaining archaeological evidence of the journey. Clark named the feature after his nickname for the young son of their Shoshone interpreter, Sacagawea.
Carrizo Plain, 204,000 acres of rolling grasslands between San Luis Obispo and Bakersfield, Calif. The area is home to wildlife including several endangered species, several American Indian sacred sites and a portion of the San Andreas Fault.
Virgin Islands Coral Reef, a nearly 13,000-acre area offshore of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The area includes “all the elements of a Caribbean tropical marine ecosystem,” the Interior Department said, including mangroves, sea grass beds and coral reefs.
An expansion of the Buck Island Reef National Monument in the Virgin Islands, which was first created in 1961. The expansion area includes 18,000 offshore acres of coral reefs, including unusual “haystacks” of elkhorn coral.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.