GPAA Managing Editor

An Obama administration plan to designate 1.7 million acres of public lands in northern Arizona as a national monument came under fire at a recent rally in Mohave County. 

More than 120 people, including local ranchers and miners, attended the April 9 event, billed as “Government Land Grabs: Exposing the Truth.”

The rally was spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., April 9 in Kingman, Ariz. About 20 speakers representing local businesses, county and state agencies spoke out against the proposed Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument.

In an interview following the rally,  Gosar called the proposed national monument an unconstitutional land grab.

“This is strictly a power grab that would prohibit grazing, forestry projects and mining,” Gosar told the Pick & Shovel Gazette. 

“This is an unconstitutional taking,” said Gosar, adding that the land grab will do nothing to help Arizona’s economy.

“Mining is actually something good that is contributing to our economy, and you’re prohibited from having access to a claim?” he said.

The monument, if proclaimed by executive order, would also restrict the use of off-road vehicles as well as hiking and camping, he said.

“They control who goes past GO, collects $200 and gets to enjoy these lands and who doesn’t,” he said. “They don’t want you on the land; they don’t want you to have access, utilize it or to honor their promises they’ve made to the western states and their people.”

Gosar is fed up with abuse of the Antiquities Act of 1906, which grants the president the power to declare national monuments without the consent of Congress. 

Though well intended, since the Antiquities Act was signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, it has gone from preserving specific areas of historical significance, scientific value and natural beauty to obvious land grabs. Today, huge swaths of public lands are being designated as national monuments to  restrict or ban mining, forestry and grazing, often to appease radical environmental lobby groups.

“The intention of the law was for hundreds of acres, maybe a thousand, and now its up into the millions of acres,” Gosar said. “The president just finished grabbing a million acres in California. It is egregious.”

Since  1906,  most  presidents  have  invoked  the  Antiquities  Act  to  proclaim  national  monuments—many taking full  advantage of  the  loosely worded law, and clearly disregarding the language “...shall be confined to the smallest area ...”

Controversy erupted in the mid-’90s when, despite much opposition from local residents, President Bill Clinton invoked the Antiquities Act to designate 1.7 million acres of southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. 

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, denounced the move as “the mother of all land grabs.”

Today, the amount of land being eaten up by restricted land use designations such as national monuments is simply staggering.

“When President Clinton designated the 1.7 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument, it impugned and further debilitated the act,” Gosar said. “And, President Obama is moving forward at an unprecedented rate.”

Gosar places the blame for these massive land grabs not only on presidents who sign the executive orders, but squarely on the shoulders of three radical environmental groups-—The Wilderness Society, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club. These groups have lobbied the government and used sue-and-settle tactics to force limits on human activity on public lands.

“We actually have documents that have shown these [groups] are the ones that are conspiring behind closed doors to lock up these lands,” said Gosar, adding these groups have taken out full-page ads in newspapers thanking Obama for the land grabs. 

By not allowing multiple uses of the land, closing down access and allowing the overgrowth of forests is a recipe for disaster on public lands, Gosar said.

“They’re actually destroying it because, particularly in Arizona, we’ve had some of the most catastrophic wildfires. Some of the invasive species they say they are protecting us from are actually generated by the fires,” Gosar said.

Gosar, who has introduced a legislative bill to the House of Representatives Resolution 3946 that would scale back the Antiquities Act and limit presidential powers. The Protecting Local Communities from Executive Overreach Act, or HR 3946, would update the Antiquities Act in order to protect property rights, water rights and jobs.

In the meantime, the best way to stop the onslaught of more government land grabs is for the House of Representatives to deny funding for national monuments, Gosar said.

“We, as Congress, have the power to not spend a dime to implement any of these executive orders. That’s what they are and we just need to have a Congress and a leadership in Congress that understands the power of the purse, and has the backbone to enforce it,” he said.

For entrenched urbanites and skeptics who may not believe the government is really taking public lands at an alarming rate, Gosar has a simple fix: “Come out and try to enjoy the western lands ... Try to take an off-road vehicle on one of the trails that’s been decommissioned in western Arizona,” he said. “Tell them to walk a mile in our moccasins, and they’ll have a whole different perspective.”  

A staunch opponent of  the government’s stay-on-the-path and look-but-don’t-touch philosophy on public lands, Gosar mocked America’s Great Outdoors initiative, which supposedly aims to encourage more youth to experience nature.

“That’s the forest of the future—the concrete jungle ... and the inner cities,” Gosar said.

He also criticized Interior Secretary Sally Jewell’s recent announcement of “The Next 100 Years Conservation Plan” and calls for more land grabs. 

Placing huge boulders in the middle of otherwise usable roads defies common sense. It creates safety concerns, blocks access in fighting forest fires and is grossly unfair to the young, elderly and handicapped who may have no other 
reasonable means of access to experience nature but by these roads, Gosar said.

Article as featured in the Pick & Shovel Gazette June-July 2016 edition.