New National Monuments
Among President Obama’s last moves before leaving office was the designation of two new national monuments: 1.9 million acres in southeastern Utah known as Bears Ears and almost 300,000 acres northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, called Gold Butte. The President acted under the authority of the Antiquities Act, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, which gives Presidents the authority to create monuments from Federal lands to protect natural, cultural, or scientific features. The designation protects the lands from any future energy exploration, mining, or other economic development. President Obama has used the authority to designate 26 monuments, more than…