Once again, the federal government is looking at the nation’s national monuments as possible sources of oil and gas production, after doing exactly the same thing eight years ago and coming up with basically nothing. This time around, however, the current executive branch is joined by the efforts of a small but vocal group of Congress members for outright repeal of the Antiquities Act, which authorizes the president to establish national monuments by proclamation. This act, one of the boldest in our history, has been used by many presidents of both parties to proclaim 160 national monuments between 1906 and today, in many states, for many purposes celebrating the nation’s history and natural beauty, and in many sizes (they range in size from 0.2 acres to more than 2 million acres).
First used in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt, the act allowed the creation of some large national monuments, such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Mount Olympus in Washington, Acadia in Maine, Death Valley and Joshua Tree in California, and Zion in Utah (all of which have become national parks), plus many examples in Alaska.
California’s own Carrizo Plain National Monument (CPNM) was designated in 2001 by President Bill Clinton. CPNM is a 250,000-acre monument protected for its fine representation of the original vegetation and habitat of the San Joaquin Valley of California, which has been converted to intensive agriculture and urbanization. The area comprising CPNM is no untouched wilderness: it has been grazed by livestock, farmed, and explored for minerals for many years. Eventually, however, people began to recognize and appreciate the area’s great value, as a place that escaped the large-scale land conversions of the San Joaquin Valley and as a refuge for the habitats and wildlife once found there that tell an important story about the history of human habitation dating back thousands of years. This recognition eventually led to the area’s designation as a national monument.
The Interior Department has undertaken an apparently secret internal review of national monuments and other protected public lands. It is manufacturing a sham energy crisis as reason to privatize our country’s precious public lands to the highest bidder and doing it under the cover of darkness.
The fact is that oil production in the U.S. is higher than it has ever been, and there are millions of acres of federal land available for more. It’s quite clear that these recent orders have nothing to do with the nation’s energy portfolio but are targeting public lands that are protected for the public’s use.
It’s also important to note that there is really little or no recoverable oil or gas in CPNM. Most of the mineral estate is actually in private ownership, having been transferred away from the federal government when the land was originally patented (i.e., sold) to private parties for agricultural purposes. Over the past hundred years, more than 300 drill sites seeking oil and/or gas have been undertaken in what is now CPNM; that is an average of one drilling operation every four months for 100 years! These efforts have found recoverable quantities of oil in only one small area in the southwest corner of CPNM. That area has produced limited quantities of oil since the 1950s, is now significantly declining, and will likely be exhausted in the near future.
Over the years the private lands were consolidated into fewer, larger ownerships, and in 1982 the Nature Conservancy, recognizing the Carrizo Plain as a still-rich natural area, purchased most of those lands for conservation and other public benefit purposes, leading eventually to the designation of the national monument.
Conducting a rushed and secret review shows that this administration is scared of public scrutiny because they know how popular these public lands are. The majority of the country continues to show their love for public lands—as they did during the first Trump administration’s attempt to privatize the country’s sacred, historic, and recreationally and culturally significant landscapes.
As for the Antiquities Act itself, it has allowed presidents to pursue long-term public goals rather than yield to wishes of corporate greed and short-term private gain. This can be seen over and over again since the act was established in 1906. One just needs to look at the list of national monuments today—and the many presidents who proclaimed them—to see how they contribute to the nation’s heritage. That exemplary record speaks to the enduring legacy of the act and the need to see it continue to protect special places into the future when Congress is unable or unwilling to act. Δ
Neil Havlik writes to New Times from San Luis Obispo. Write a response for publication by emailing it to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Spring Arts Annual 2025.