ARIZONA

McCain, Flake warn: Obama to designate Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument

Federal law allows president to set aside federal lands of national interest but senators want him to listen to Arizona leaders

Brandon Loomis
The Republic | azcentral.com
Efforts to protect the area around the Grand Canyon from mining face strong opposition, particularly from Republicans who represent Arizona in Washington and at the state Capitol.
  • Monument could protect 1.7 million acres of forest
  • Plan would make permanent a uranium-mining ban
  • Governor seeks change to monument-making law

Arizona’s U.S. senators raised an alarm on Wednesday over hints that President Barack Obama is ready to designate a Grand Canyon-area national monument that they oppose.

Republican Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake sent a joint letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack seeking a briefing on “reports from within the administration that there are final efforts underway” to carve something like a proposed 1.7 million-acre national monument out of Kaibab National Forest lands on either side of Grand Canyon National Park.

State leaders have cautioned against a new monument that would permanently ban uranium mining in the park’s watershed. They have argued it would restrict access and management options.

They also have argued that a monument would complicate forest-thinning efforts meant to curb fire hazards — a charge that monument backers reject.

McCain and Flake wrote to Vilsack because, they said, they are hearing that the president will act despite “significant unresolved issues” raised by his department and its U.S. Forest Service division.

“Because of the effect a new national monument could have on efforts to prevent catastrophic wildfires,” they wrote, “we are particularly interested in ensuring that a new national monument is not designated over USDA’s objections.”

Rep. Grijalva unaware of senators' letter

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., was unaware of the senators’ discussions, according to spokesman Adam Sarvana. Grijalva has proposed a bill to create a Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument. But with Republicans controlling Congress, it is considered more a blueprint for Obama than a legislative likelihood.

Congress can create national monuments on federal lands such as national forests, though more often a president uses the Antiquities Act to do so unilaterally.

“We understand some Republicans, including Sen. McCain, oppose the idea,” Sarvana said. “We hope the administration agrees with us.”

The White House and Interior Department declined to comment. The Agriculture Department and Forest Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

If the president creates a monument along the lines of Grijalva’s plan, it would permanently ban new uranium-mining applications in a broad area of northern Arizona that environmentalists say must be protected to keep industry from poisoning the park’s springs and the Colorado River.

Moratorium on mining claims

The Obama administration previously imposed a 20-year moratorium on such mining claims, though five years of that stoppage have already passed.

“Every couple of decades, there’s a resurgence of uranium-mining activity,” said Sandy Bahr, who heads the Sierra Club’s Arizona program. Interest fluctuates with world prices.

She called the senators’ claim of increased fire hazards “nonsense” because the bill proposing the monument specifically allows continued forest management.

Advocates such as the Sierra Club would continue to seek old-growth ponderosa-pine protections, Bahr said, but those trees are naturally more fire-resistant than the younger, spindlier trees clogging most of the Kaibab.

She said she had “no inside information” that a presidential designation was imminent.

Kevin Dahl of the National Parks Conservation Association said he senses growing optimism among pro-monument groups.

Representatives of several Native American tribes have supported the monument plan because it protects culturally significant areas.

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission has opposed it, arguing that a new preservation status for the federal land could hinder state wildlife management. Monument supporters have noted that, as with forest thinning, the Grijalva plan maintains hunting privileges.

Flake, McCain sent separate letter to president

The senators’ letter came two days after they sent another one to Obama himself, urging him to “refrain from designating any additional national monuments in Arizona without first engaging in full and meaningful consultation with affected stakeholders, including local government and state agencies.”

With that letter they included a written statement that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey submitted to a Senate committee last month. In it, Ducey complained of federal lands oversight that ignores state concerns.

“We, the State of Arizona, encourage a fair alternative to the proposed use of the Antiquities Act to create the (monument), which will unfairly limit access and prohibit the ability of private entities to conduct business on 1.7 million acres of lands in Arizona,” the governor wrote in that Sept. 22 statement to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

“We ask that the United States Congress review and amend the Antiquities Act of 1906 as it is unrepresentative of the principles on which this great nation was founded: a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that the government is honest, and making decisions that best serve all citizens.”

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