But Kristen Brengel, senior VP of govt affairs at the #NationalParks #Conservation Association, noted Roosevelt himself used the #law to #protect the huge swath of #land that later became #GrandCanyon National Park.

“He stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon & said he was going to protect it, & then he did,” she said.

Signed into #law by President Theodore Roosevelt, the #AntiquitiesAct of 1906 gives presidents vast powers to #protect #lands & #waters through the creation of #NationalMonuments. But the law is quiet on whether presidents can remove designations set by their predecessors.

The Bureau of Land Management administers ~17k square miles of national monuments in the West….

Other performance metrics include removing #protections for #EndangeredSpecies that have *recovered* & restoring “historic [racist] names” to #landmarks. On his first day back in office, #Trump stripped #NorthAmerica’s tallest mountain of its #Indigenous name, #Denali, & restored its previous title, Mount McKinley.

The draft strategic plan spells out the #Trump admin’s #Interior Dept’s priorities through 2030, which include increasing production of #FossilFuels, opening #lands in #Alaska & elsewhere to #minerals extraction, reducing grazing costs & trying to “release” federal holdings for housing #development.

While #Interior ofcls declined to comment about any potential monument review, the approach was outlined in a “strategic plan draft framework” shared w/ WaPo. One of the dept’s “potential performance measures” going forward, acc/to the document, will be making sure #NationalMonuments are “assessed & *correctly* sized.”

“They opened up Grand Staircase under the previous [#Trump] administration & the #coal market did not rush in, the #oil & #gas market did not rush in, nobody rushed in,” said Tracy Stone-Manning, who led #Interior’s Bureau of #Land Management under #Biden. “There are plenty of #minerals elsewhere. This is about an #ideological battle.”

#Conservation & #Indigenous advocates argue that there is little demand to develop those resources & that the #NationalMonuments represent vital #ecological & #sacred cultural reserves that local communities fought for years to #protect.

#Interior aides are looking at whether to scale back at least 6 #NationalMonuments, said these individuals…. The list, they added, includes Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the #GrandCanyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante—national monuments spread across #Arizona, #California, #NewMexico & #Utah.

#Trump officials are analyzing whether to remove federal #protections for #NationalMonuments spanning millions of acres in the West, according to two people familiar with the matter and an internal #Interior Department document, in order to spur #energy development on #PublicLands.

#land #conservation #habitats #ecosystems #wildlife #FossilFuels #ClimateChange #EnvironmentalLaw #law

Acc/to Wiedenmann, #CoralReefs support a third of all #marine #biodiversity either directly or indirectly. “If the #corals die, this support structure that provides food & homes is lost. Consequently, many #species will suffer, as well,” he said. Acc/to a 2020 study, rising #sea surface #temperatures & acidic waters could eliminate nearly all surviving #coral #reef #habitats by 2100.

The massive blow to #marine #habitats reported by #NOAA — the highest share EVER recorded — comes as the #planet experiences its fourth global #coral bleaching event, which occurs when bleaching is confirmed in every one of the #oceans’ basins at once.

NOAA says the latest global event began on Jan 1, 2023, & mass bleaching has now been observed across at least 83 countries & territories, threatening #MarineLife from Fiji to the Florida Keys to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

"Any conservation gains species were making will be reversed—we're going to see losses again," he said.
Under the #EndangeredSpecies Act, it's illegal to "take" an endangered species. By #law, "take" is defined to mean actions that harass, harm, or kill species. For decades, federal agencies have interpreted "harm" broadly, to include actions that modify or degrade #habitats in ways that impair endangered species' ability to feed, breed or find shelter.

The #Trump admin proposed a rule change that would prohibit only actions that directly hurt or kill actual animals, not the #habitats they rely on. If finalized, the change could make it easier to #log, #mine & build on #lands that #EndangeredSpecies need to thrive.

"#Habitat loss is the biggest single cause of #extinction & endangered species—it makes sense to address it,"Ctr for Biological Diversity govt affairs dir Brett Hartl said. He called efforts to deny that cause "callous & reckless."

@david_megginson 2/2 Such promises act as a glue trap for the population. We don't learn about the suffering of the masses of cloned pigs that we abuse in animal factories. Even if the mammoths are just rapidly ageing, sick elephants: How much animal suffering. And what incalculable consequences for #habitats and #ecosystems! This is pure #supremacism, #nature as a colony to be exploited.

#deextinction #ethics #science #feasibilityMania #ecology

@animalculum

…#Trump called for the convening of a committee of high-level officials nicknamed the God Squad because it can override the landmark #EndangeredSpecies Act so that development or other projects can proceed even if they might result in an #extinction.

The cmte has rarely been convened since it was created, in 1978, through an amendment to the endangered species #law to allow for action during emergencies like #hurricanes & #wildfires.

“#Trump’s order will unleash the chain saws & bulldozers on our federal #forests,” said Randi Spivak, the #PublicLands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an #environmental group. “#Clearcutting these beautiful places will increase #fire risk, drive species to #extinction, #pollute our #rivers & #streams, & destroy world-class recreation sites,” she said.