Proposed Laws Targets Century-Previous Presidential Authority to Defend Public Lands
Washington, D.C. – Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA), the main voice for North America’s public lands, waters, and wildlife, in the present day condemned a newly-introduced invoice that threatens vital conservation efforts beneath the guise of restoring authority that Congress already enjoys. The Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act, launched by Representatives Celeste Maloy (R-UT) and Mark Amodei (R-NV), seeks to strip the president of the authority granted beneath the Antiquities Act to guard public lands by means of nationwide monument designations. This effort undermines a legislation that has safeguarded a few of America’s most iconic landscapes, and related searching and fishing alternatives, for greater than a century. Kaden McArthur, Director of Coverage and Authorities Relations for BHA, issued the next assertion in response:
“Since signed into legislation by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, the Antiquities Act has been utilized by 9 Republican and 9 Democratic presidents to guard pure, historic, and scientific assets on our federal public lands. The flexibility for the president to designate nationwide monuments is extra crucial than ever as gridlock in Congress and ideological opposition to conservation of public lands makes it more and more tough to go laws to guard landscapes from encroaching improvement and different threats. Hunters, anglers, and the American public can be higher served if Congress labored to advance significant protections for our public lands and waters, somewhat than difficult the long-standing authority of the president to take action.”
The Antiquities Act is a vital device to ascertain nationwide monuments that preserve giant landscapes, safe very important fish and wildlife habitat, and safeguard conventional searching and angling alternatives on public lands and waters. As early as 1908, the Antiquities Act was utilized by Roosevelt to designate greater than 800,000 acres of public land because the Grand Canyon Nationwide Monument to guard the area from mining claims.
BHA has persistently advocated for America’s nationwide monuments system and the considered use of the Antiquities Act to completely preserve vital lands and waters. Central to BHA’s advocacy is guaranteeing that monument designations adhere to particular ideas, together with a regionally pushed and clear course of, science-based habitat administration, and the preservation of present searching and fishing alternatives. BHA and a consortium of teams and companies launched a report that outlines these ideas and the way nationwide monuments can maintain vital habitat and conventional searching and fishing entry. Learn Nationwide Monuments: A Looking and Fishing Perspective.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to make sure North America’s outside heritage of searching and fishing in a pure setting, by means of training and work on behalf of untamed public lands, waters, and wildlife. To study extra about points vital to BHA’s membership, and to change into a member in the present day, go to www.backcountryhunters.org/our_issues.
