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24 stunning US national monuments under threat from mining and drilling thanks to Donald Trump

Sonoran Desert: Tonda-iStock
Sonoran Desert: Tonda-iStock

The northern rim of the Grand Canyon and a coastal region in Maine, home to rare turtles and whales, are among the 24 national monuments that US President Donald Trump has asked his interior secretary to review, in a move some fear could see areas of natural beauty mined and drilled for resources.

Mr Trump signed the executive order to re-assess monuments at the Interior Department on Wednesday 26 April, labelling the designation of national monuments as a “massive federal land grab” by past administrations.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke must now re-consider the status of monuments established under the Antiquities Act after 1996. These include Castle Mountains in California and Gold Butte in Nevada.

The Antiquities Act protects specific areas of land and sea, and in some cases bans logging, mining, and drilling. The executive action could unravel protections put in place in Utah and other states which hold federal lands as monuments and restrict their use.

Speaking at the signing, Mr Trump said the order would end “another egregious abuse of federal power” and “give that power back to the states and to the people where it belongs.”

Mr Trump went on to accuse his predecessors of using the Antiquities Act to “unilaterally put millions of acres of land and water under strict federal control”.

“Somewhere along the way the Act has become a tool of political advocacy rather than public interest,” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke added. “And it's easy to see why designations in some cases are viewed negatively by those local communities that are impacted the most.”

Among the sites under review is the Bears Ears National Monument, which Mr Obama created in December before leaving office. The monument takes up over one million acres of land sacred to Native Americans and is home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings. However, the move angered Republicans in Utah who wanted to be free to mine the area for resources.

“No president has ever called into question any national monument protected by the Antiquities Act until President Trump,” Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said in a statement regarding Mr Trump's decision. “His unprecedented executive order threatens decades' worth of conservation efforts and could potentially revoke designations to places that have significant cultural and historical value.”

Additional reporting by AP