Hovenweep National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border is one of ten monuments in the Southwest that are at risk of losing federal protections.
That’s according to an analysis of a recent order issued by the new Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum. The analysis was prepared by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for the protection of national parks.
“NPCA has reviewed this order and, using data from the Department of Energy, has identified key places at risk of losing federal protections which could have devastating and lasting impacts,” the organization said in a release.
The Trump administration has declared a “national energy emergency” and is seeking to enable widespread oil and gas drilling and mineral extraction on public lands.
Hovenweep, which is under 800 acres in size, sits in an area with potential energy resources.
“There’s a lot of interest in that area from oil and gas companies,” said Kate Groetzinger of the Center for Western Priorities, who spoke to KSJD by phone.
“If they were to reduce the boundaries, it would be for the sake of oil and gas drilling.”
Burgum’s Feb. 3 order “directs the removal of impediments imposed on the development and use of our Nation's abundant energy and natural resources by the Biden administration's burdensome regulations.”
In the order, Burgum says the half-dozen assistant secretaries under his direction are “to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands, consistent with existing law. . .” within 15 days.
“Withdrawn public lands” have protections from development. The term includes national monuments.
The NPCA’s list of national monuments at risk also includes Aztec Ruins in New Mexico; Natural Bridges, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, and Sunset Crater, Grand Canyon-Parashant, Vermilion Cliffs, and Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni in Arizona; Dinosaur in Colorado; and three monuments in the northern Rockies and Great Plains – Devils Tower, Jewel Cave, and Scottsbluff.
All were created by presidential, not congressional, actions.
Daniel Hart, director of clean energy and climate policy for the NPCA, told KSJD in a phone interview that he developed the list of at-risk monuments by using a geospatial mapper from the Department of Energy that shows oil and gas fields and mining claims.
The list is not exhaustive, he emphasized.
“We tried to concentrate on the ones where we were more aware of the threats – the ones we knew more about than some of the others,” he said.
“We don’t know definitively that they will go for all of these, but we knew they will push as hard as possible for as much leasing and mining as possible.”
He said Burgum’s order shows a difference in policy from the first Trump term, when the president downsized Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah apparently because President Obama had created them and many of Utah’s political leaders did not like them.
Burgum’s order is much more sweeping and calls for a review of all monuments created under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which grants presidents the power to designate national monuments.
“Apparently you can look back as far as 1906 now,” Hart said.
He said Hovenweep could be at risk because it is “right in the center of the largest oil fields in the Southwest.”
“There is a patchwork of claims surrounding it,” he said.
In 2019, oil and gas lease auctions on Bureau of Land Management lands in the vicinity of Hovenweep sparked considerable concern.
https://fourcornersfreepress.com/energy-concerns-blm-speeds-oil-and-gas-leasing-despite-worries/
At that time, Park Service officials, indigenous tribes, and environmental groups said the drilling could adversely affect cultural resources, air quality, dark night skies, scenic value, soundscapes and groundwater quality.
In order for companies to drill or mine on areas currently within national monuments, the monuments’ boundaries would have to be shrunk, according to Kate Groetzinger, communications manager for the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation nonprofit.
“When monuments are created by presidents under the Antiquities Act, they prevent new drilling and mining,” she told KSJD by phone. “So for any new drilling to occur, the boundaries would need to be adjusted.”
But whether a president can legally shrink the size of monuments is unclear, Groetzinger said.
“We think the Antiquities Act only give presidents the ability to create, not reduce, monuments,” she said.
However, the issue has not been legally resolved.
When Trump drastically reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, the action was challenged in court, “but that lawsuit did not come to completion before the monuments were reinstated by President Biden,” Groetzinger said.
If the new administration starts shrinking monuments, there will be new lawsuits, she said.
“If monuments are adjusted, shrunk, or removed, there will be a lot of litigation over that and we will eventually see an answer [to whether it is legal],” she said.
Hart said the NPCA is greatly concerned about the impacts that drilling and mining could have on the “precious beauty, water, cultural resources, and archaeological sites” of currently protected areas.
“That’s what got us going [with the list],” he said. “We don’t want to take for granted that they are not going to do this.
“Are they going to? We hope not, but this is something they’re clearly looking at.”
