https://www.nrahlf.org/article...-two-national-parks/

Does Obama's New Executive Order End Hunting on Two National Parks?


by Karen Mehall Phillips - Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Does Obama's New Executive Order End Hunting on Two National Parks?


For hunters who missed the news over the holiday, President Obama signed an executive order on Dec. 28 proclaiming Bears Ears in Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada as national monuments. While Congress gives the President the power to designate lands as national monuments under the Antiquities Act, American hunters are reaching out to NRAHLF.org with an important question: Will the move shut down hunting on these lands—collectively spanning more than 1.6 million acres—as is typically the case once land is deemed a national monument? Here is what the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) can share with NRAHLF.org to date.

According to Chris Zealand of the NRA-ILA Research and Information Division, it actually is not clear whether the proclamations creating these new national monuments impose hunting bans. First, the administration has denied that intent in statements to the press. As explained by federal officials, "New mining or energy development will be banned, but existing operations won't be affected. Wood and plant gathering is still allowed as well as hunting, fishing and other recreation."

Second, the actual proclamations establishing the two monuments specifically state that Utah and Nevada will maintain authority over fish and wildlife management as noted below:

Bears Ears: “Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Utah, including its jurisdiction and authority with respect to fish and wildlife management.” That proclamation also mentions with approval that Indians and others hunt on the land.
Gold Butte: “Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Nevada, including its jurisdiction and authority with respect to fish and wildlife management, including hunting and fishing."

The proclamations additionally require the establishment of advisory committees of stakeholders to provide input on the management of the land.

"While monumental designation does not eliminate hunting," said Susan Recce, director of NRA-ILA's Conservation, Wildlife and Natural Resources Division, "it does affect other uses like livestock grazing and oil, gas and mineral extraction. Whether or not this move will affect access to existing hunting opportunities will become known through the development of the management plan for the monuments to see if critical roads or trails are proposed for closure."​

As noted on the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) website, “The monument designations maintain currently authorized uses of the land that do not harm the resources protected by the monument, including tribal access and traditional collection of plants and firewood, off-highway vehicle recreation, hunting and fishing and authorized grazing.” A BLM fact sheet on the designations further explains, “The designations preserve current uses of the land, including tribal access and traditional collection of plants and firewood, off-highway vehicle recreation, hunting and fishing, legal grazing, military training operations, and utility corridors.”

At this time, it appears that current hunting opportunities are not automatically curtailed. But while the Obama Administration specifically states that hunting will not be affected, NRA-ILA will monitor the scenario to ensure that the concerns of American hunters are represented in the advisory committees.

According to reports we're seeing here in Arizona, Obama is expected to designate the "Grand Canyon Watershed National Monument" as he walks out the door this month. It would include all prime mule deer country on Forest Service and BLM lands north of Grand Canyon (the Arizona Strip and North Kaibab), as well as some Forest Service lands south of the Canyon.

Promoters also are saying hunting will continue under state management as before, but the question is for how long?

Bill Quimby

Bill,

I posted this on another forum a few days ago.

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Keep your eye on the bouncing ball. History doesn't paint a pretty picture of the creation of national monuments under the Antiquities Act in Utah and several other places. Both Bryce and Zion NPs started as monuments. To see more, read this:

https://www.nps.gov/parkhistor...shistory/righter.htm

In the meantime, here's something I wrote to our local newspaper columnist who is pushing to have Obama designate the Grand Canyon National Monument, which will include ALL of the North Kaibab Plateau.

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It's obvious from reading your column on the GC monument that you did very little research but are simply parroting the "talking points du jour." If you had dug deeper you would have figured out why sportsmen, the state's game department and most of AZ's congressional members are against the monument designation. It's simple, and comes down to the proverb: "If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow."

While Grijalva's bill as written, which Obama can activate via the Antiquities Act, states that hunting and other recreational uses will still be permitted, those provisions will be meaningless if what has happened in the past happens again. Over the years, a couple dozen national monuments (see the link above for an excellent read about this topic) where hunting was allowed have been changed to national parks. Once that happens, no stipulations or inclusions from the original monument designation matters. They're history -- gone forever. Instead, the rules that govern national parks now become the law of the land. That means hunting gets banned completely. One place where this has already occurred here in AZ is Saguaro National Park -- where quail, deer and javelina hunting existed before it was outlawed. And guess what? Grand Canyon NP also started as a national monument, as did Bryce and Zion.

The major problem with this current effort is the inclusion of the entire North Kaibab Plateau. For sportsmen, it's considered as one of the finest mule deer areas in the West. In 1984, 40,000 acres of good hunting land on the east side of the Kaibab were eliminated by the creation of the Saddle Mountain Wilderness Area, thereby blocking vehicle access. Still, each year thousands of hunters from all over the U.S. apply for one of the hard-to-draw permits. In 2015. there were 7,443 applicants for the 685 permits available. And you can bet the ranch that the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and the Human Society of the U.S. would like nothing better than to have the North Kaibab Plateau closed to hunting.

As a national park the GC itself is ALREADY protected from uranium mining and the areas around it are ALREADY protected by law until 2020 at least. Those who want those protections to stay in place should lobby for legislation that prohibits uranium mines past the date when the current ban expires. I bet even the sportsmen and the state's game department would cheer them on.