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Showing posts with the label Antiquities Act

Monuments Make America Great

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We are all familiar with the swirl of controversy surrounding the designation of national monuments.  People hear that all roads in a new monument will be closed.  Recreation will be outlawed.  That monuments are only created to protect wildlife.  I wouldn't support national monuments, either, if that were true. I don't just visit public lands to enjoy the wildlife that share the land with me.  I need lonely dirt roads that stretch over the horizon.   A remote campsite where I can relax with a beer in hand as the shadows of a mountain range creep across a wide valley at sunset.  I need monuments to keep the lights of the city far away, so I can see the the millions of stars above that remind me of my own insignificance in this universe. The sun sets across the Ward Valley in Mojave Trails National Monument.  This area was once-considered a candidate site for a nuclear waste dump. Others visit monuments for activities I may not personally enjoy.  That's usually what