Clinton protects Grand Canyon and California lands
Date: 12-Jan-00
Country: USA
Standing against the majestic, multicolored backdrop of the Grand
Canyon, Clinton designated two new national monuments in Arizona,
including one of just more than a million acres (404,700 hectares) on
the canyon's north rim, and another near Phoenix.
He also created a national monument to preserve islands off the
California coast and expanded an existing monument south of San Jose,
California.
The designations under the 1906 Antiquities Act drew applause from
environmental groups but stirred up protests from Arizona Republican
politicians who wrote to Clinton last week asking him to consult local
officials further before acting.
Although the land covered by the designations is already owned by the
U.S. government, the national monument designation puts it off limits to
new mining and other forms of development as declared by Clinton.
Existing rights will be respected.
Keen to burnish his legacy, Clinton announced the moves 92 years to the
day that President Theodore Roosevelt declared a national monument on
the land that became the core of the 1.1 million-acre (445,200-hectare)
Grand Canyon National Park.
"None of you who can see what is behind me can doubt the wisdom of that
decision," Clinton said at the south rim of the Grand Canyon, a chasm
277 miles (445 km) long, extends up to 18 miles (28 km) across and runs
roughly one mile (1.6 km) deep.
"We know, as President Roosevelt said, we cannot improve upon this
landscape, so the only thing we can add to it is our protection," he
said. "This is not about locking lands up. It is about freeing them up
from the pressures of development and the threat of sprawl for all
Americans for all time."
Dressed in a brown suede jacket and cowboy boots, Clinton earlier toured
the canyon by helicopter and on foot, peering out the window at the
gorge shimmering in sunlight and walking in the Tuweep Valley on its
north side.
Clinton designated more than a million acres of land at the canyon's
north rim as as the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, which
encompasses a key watershed for the Colorado River. The monument is
larger than Yosemite National Park and nearly as big as the adjacent
Grand Canyon National Park.
He also designated a 71,000-acre (28,730-hectare) Agua Fria National
Monument on public land north of Phoenix to protect prehistoric rock
inscriptions and ancient ruins.
He announced a third national monument covering thousands of small
islands, rocks and reefs off the California coast that serve as a
habitat for wildlife such as sea otters and birds. This monument runs
the length of California's 840-mile (1,345-km) coast and extends out 12
miles (19 km).
The president also expanded California's Pinnacles National Monument by
8,000 acres (3,238 hectares) to better protect the spire-like rock
formations that rise up to 1,200 feet (366 metres) high.
ARIZONA OFFICIALS OPPOSED
Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull, Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl and five of
the conservative-leaning state's representatives - all Republicans -
wrote to Clinton last week asking him to delay acting and to consult
further with local officials.
But Clinton aides said they had engaged in extensive consultations and
the president denied that he was acting simply to enhance his legacy.
"Everything you do in your last year looks like a legacy thing, but
we've been at this for a long time," the president said, noting that
every president but three had taken similar actions since the
Antiquities Act was passed in 1906.
The White House said with the lands protected on Tuesday, Clinton ranked
second only to former President Jimmy Carter in protecting U.S.
wilderness as national monuments. Carter's preservation in Alaska puts
him at the top of the list.
The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defence Council
and Southwest Forest Alliance hailed Clinton's move in a statement,
saying more than three-quarters of Ar