Monday, May 22, 2017 | 2 a.m.
For the record, the Trump administration says it hasn’t rigged its review of whether to reverse orders designating 27 large national monuments, including Gold Butte, and Basin and Range.
But for the record, President Donald Trump also once said he would label China a trade manipulator and that the government falsified its job statistics but reversed himself on those and other issues.
So given that the administration is about as believable as a guy selling designer suits out of the back of a van, the state should treat the review as an assault on the monuments.
It’s crucial for Nevada leaders to tell Trump and his attack dog Ryan Zinke, secretary of the Interior, that Gold Butte and Basin and Range richly deserve the federal protections that come with being designated as monuments.
The only acceptable outcome of the Trump/Zinke review is that the areas are invaluable treasures from environmental, cultural and historical standpoints, and should remain national monuments.
Future generations deserve to see the areas as they are now — home to unique plants and animals, breathtaking geological beauty and Native American petroglyphs and artwork dating thousands of years — and not pocked with fracking operations or mining pits or scarred by off-road trails and vandalism. Plus, the benefits of protecting the lands far outweigh their potential for business development. The monuments are grossly unsuited for ranching and are too remote for property development, and while they may be suitable for mining and solar-power generation, there are plenty of other places in Nevada for those enterprises.
What’s infuriating about Trump’s review is that Nevadans have expressed their support for the monuments through years-long processes that included public comment sessions and solicitations for public input.
That process led to legislation being introduced in Congress to designate the areas as monuments. Only after that legislation failed — done in by “party of no” Republicans like Sen. Dean Heller, who sided with Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and other state’s-rights zealots on the issue — did former President Barack Obama step in and request the designations under the Antiquities Act.
Now come Trump and Zinke.
Trump signaled where he stands on the designations when he referred to the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah as a “land grab.”
He hasn’t made any similar comments about the Nevada sites, but considering that the Basin and Range designation partially blocked a rail route that would be used to transport waste to Yucca Mountain — which Trump made an unsuccessful attempt this year to revive — it appears the monuments are in jeopardy.
That being the case, the Trump/Zinke review is an Alamo moment for Nevada.
One way to protect the areas is to take full advantage of an invitation from the Interior Department for the public to submit comments in its review process, and another is to let Heller and the rest of the congressional delegation know that Nevadans expect them to fight for the monuments.
It’s time to guard Gold Butte and Basin and Range like the priceless jewels they are.
BE HEARD
Comments may be submitted online here by entering “DOI-2017-0002” in the search bar and clicking “Search,” or by mail to:
Monument Review, MS-1530
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240
To contact Nevada’s Senators and Representatives:
• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
(Note: All URLs are online email forms)
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