Meet Our Newest National Monuments

A Monumental Challenge

What makes a national monument? It must have biological, historical, or archaeological marvels like the ones you have seen on this and the preceding pages. But even recognition as a monument doesn’t guarantee protection. The executive branch is supposed to shield monuments from harmful activities. Under the Bush administration, however, many are at risk. Bush is considering stringing transmission lines through Ironwood Forest National Monument in Arizona, for example, and approving construction of a new power plant nearby. Meanwhile, mining giant ASARCO is lobbying the local congressional representative, Jim Kolbe (R), and Arizona’s governor, Jane Hull (R), to shrink Ironwood’s boundaries so the company can expand a neighboring open-pit copper mine.

To someone who cares about Ironwood’s petroglyphs, pygmy owls, and bighorn sheep, these requests might seem absurd. But the Bush administration is all too open to such suggestions. It put the brakes on protection plans for Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and ordered a review of the oil, gas, and coal potential on all public lands. Interior Secretary Gale Norton sent a letter to politicians who live near the new national monuments, encouraging them to recommend “boundary adjustments” and ideas for “multiple use.”

Norton can ask, but she must also listen. Because these lands belong to all Americans, the secretary of the Interior Department is obliged to consider the sentiments of all the American people. If you’d like to express your support for full protection of our new national monuments, please send the attached postcard to her in care of the Sierra Club’s Washington office. We’ll let Norton—and the news media—know how many of you took a stand.

See for Yourself
The Sierra Club leads spring and fall trips to the redrock canyons of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. For more information, contact Sierra Club Outings, 85 Second St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-3441; phone (415) 977-5630; e-mail national.outings@sierra club.org; or visit our Web site.