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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gst" data-source="post: 183689" data-attributes="member: 373"><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-to-expand-hunting-at-national-monuments-1505488706#comments_sector" target="_blank">https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-to-expand-hunting-at-national-monuments-1505488706#comments_sector</a>So who here knew hunting was being prohibited on these federal lands? [h=2]r Secretary Ryan Zinke signs order instructing agencies to allow hunting, fishing[/h]<img src="https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/BN-VD178_MONUME_GR_20170914205818.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />[FONT=&quot]A Joshua tree forest in California’s Castle Mountains National Monument, created by former President Barack Obama last year. Hunting is prohibited in the monument. PHOTO: DAVID BECKER/ZUMA PRESS[FONT=&quot]By Jim Carlton[/FONT]Updated Sept. 15, 2017 11:54 a.m. ET<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-administration-to-expand-hunting-at-national-monuments-1505488706#comments_sector" target="_blank">79 COMMENTS</a>[FONT=&quot]President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to expand hunting, fishing and target shooting at as many U.S. national monuments as possible, under a plan signed Friday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Limited hunting and shooting is already allowed at some monuments, but the new plan seeks to open monuments that have previously banned those activities, a step that drew criticism from environmentalists and praise from hunters.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Under Mr. Zinke’s order, hunting and target shooting could return to popular recreation areas such as the Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado, which now prohibits those sports.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Interior officials said details would be worked out by the various agencies managing federal lands. The order instructs those agencies to do what they can within their authority to expand hunting, fishing and shooting on the monuments they oversee.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Target shooting and hunting are prohibited at most of the 129 national monuments, while fishing is currently allowed at many of them.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The existing bans, many of them decades-old, are part of land-management plans adopted by federal agencies that oversee monuments—lands designated for protection on cultural, historic or scientific grounds. The National Park Service, for instance, issued a prohibition on hunting at California’s Castle Mountains National Monument shortly after then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, created it last year.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Randi Spivak, public lands program director with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group based in Tucson, Ariz., said there was a reason why target shooting bans were put in place at some national monuments.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]“People were using petroglyphs and saguaro cactus for target practice and destroying them,” Ms. Spivak said. “Lifting these protections would be completely inappropriate, leading to vandalism and jeopardizing public safety.”[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Environmental groups, which have often pushed for those restrictions, could turn to the courts in hopes of keeping hunting and shooting out of those areas.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]In Arizona, for example, the Wilderness Society, a land-conservation organization, and some other groups have sued the federal government to ban target shooting in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. Environmental groups argue target shooting damages ancient rock art and endangers other visitors.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Mr. Zinke, however, sees <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/interior-secretary-zinke-connects-with-local-communities-in-protected-lands-1504522800" target="_blank">expanding such activities</a> as a way to get more people into the outdoors and interested in conservation.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]His order noted that the number of sport hunters in the U.S. has declined—falling by two million to 11.5 million between 2011 and 2016, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Hunting advocates said the numbers have fallen, in part, because so many federal lands have been closed off.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]“The more people we can get outdoors, the better things will be for our public lands,” said Mr. Zinke, a former congressman from Montana. “Some of my best memories are hunting deer or reeling in rainbow trout back home in Montana, and I think every American should be able to have that experience.”[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The move is likely to endear Mr. Zinke and the administration to a key Trump constituency of hunters and other sportsmen, who have applauded other recent actions by the interior secretary, including a proposed expansion of hunting and fishing at 10 national wildlife refuges.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]“This order will help ensure sportsmen and women continue to have opportunities for quality recreational experiences on public lands and potentially private lands,” said David Allen, president and chief executive officer of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, a hunters’ advocacy group.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]The action comes as the White House continues to study the interior secretary’s recommended changes to some of the 27 land and sea national monuments he reviewed at the president’s request. The changes could involve reducing the size of various protected areas.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]A time hasn’t been set for when the GOP president will act on the review, according to an administration official. The president asked for the review earlier this year after complaining that previous administrations had locked up too much land within national monuments.[/FONT][FONT=&quot]“This announcement is smoke and mirrors designed to distract from the recommendation Secretary Zinke made in secret to lift protections for vast swaths of Western public lands,” the Western Values Project, an environmental group based in Mr. Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Mont., said in a statement.[/FONT][/FONT]</blockquote>

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