05-02-2025
New Interior secretary orders review of monuments, public lands closed to mining, drilling
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called for a review of public lands that had been placed off limits to mining and drilling.
President Donald Trump ordered a similar review of national monuments in his first term.
Environmental groups say the public overwhelmingly supports protecting public lands and vowed to fight the order.
Newly installed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is calling for the review of national monuments and other public lands withdrawn from fossil fuel extraction and mining even as tribes praised his appointment to oversee the nation's largest agency.
In one of his first secretarial orders, issued Monday, Burgum ordered Interior department staff to review and "as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands, consistent with existing law, including 54 U.S.C. 320301 and 43 U.S.C. 1714.'
Burgum was referring to two federal laws that give presidents the power under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create national monuments from existing federal lands, which prohibit new oil, gas and mineral extraction claims, and to withdraw permit permissions from some federal lands.
Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, created by President Joe Biden in 2023, incorporated lands that had existing bans against new claims. The monument has already survived one challenge.
Burgum's predecessor, Deb Haaland, banned oil and gas drilling and fracking within a 10-mile radius of Chaco Culture National Historic Park, also in 2023.
Environmentalists were quick to oppose the move. 'President Trump and Secretary Burgum are headed down the wrong path with this monument review," said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. She said a previous attempt by Burgum's boss, President Donald Trump, to shrink or completely close national monuments was met with "near-universal condemnation."
"Voters want national monuments protected in perpetuity, not opened for drilling and mining," Rokala said, and "this move shows blatant disregard for Westerners and America's public lands.'
Interior staffers were given 15 days to complete the reviews, which also included other monuments such as Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and the most recently created monuments, Chuckwalla in the deserts east of Coachella and Sáttítla, in Northern California. All four had strong support from local tribes who sought to protect sacred and environmentally important areas.
Burgum takes charge of the nation's largest agency with support from tribes
Republican senators were joined by more than half of Democrats in the upper chamber, including Arizona Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Democrats, to confirm Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota, by a 79-18 vote in the U.S. Senate last week,
Burgum succeeds Haaland, the first Native American appointed to the cabinet-level role.
The Interior Department is the nation's land manager and oversees more than 500 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals and 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf. It's also the largest federal agency with more than 70,000 employees.
The National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation are some of the agency's major responsibilities. Interior also runs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the major Indian agencies, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration, which manages the financial assets of American Indians that are held in trust by Interior.
Burgum has had a warmer relationship with tribes than his two Republican predecessors in the first Trump administration, Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt. North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican, said Burgum had the support of more than 185 tribes.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren was one of those leaders. In a statement released in January, Nygren praised Burgum for his efforts to strengthen government-to-government relationships with the five tribes in North Dakota.
'His efforts to advocate for equitable tax-sharing agreements, increase tribal representation in decision-making, and advance cooperative law enforcement initiatives shows his dedication to advance the interests of tribal communities and address shared priorities,' Nygren said.
During his swearing-in ceremony Friday, Burgum reemphasized his commitment to good relationships with tribes.
'The current partnership (in North Dakota) is historically strong because we prioritized tribal engagement through mutual respect, open communication, collaboration and a sincere willingness to listen,' he said. 'At Interior, we will strengthen our commitment to enhancing the quality of life, promoting economic opportunities and empowering our tribal partners through those principles.'
The Foundation for America's Public Lands, the official charitable partner of BLM, also sang Burgum's praises: 'With roughly 4 million acres of BLM-managed lands in his home state of North Dakota, Secretary Burgum has a deep understanding of how these places power local economies, represent the heritage of the West, help keep our lights on, and provide unmatched opportunities for hunting, fishing, and recreation,' the foundation's CEO, I Ling Thompson said in a statement.
But other observers note that North Dakota native Burgum, a software industry entrepreneur whose family profited from oil leases on their lands, is also a fossil fuel advocate. Their fears that Burgum will open up more lands to drilling, fracking and mining seemed to be bearing fruit with the orders, which also include declaring an energy emergency and reopening offshore waters to oil drilling.
During confirmation hearings, Burgum stressed he would support more 'clean coal' and other fossil fuel policies to close what he said was a deficit of baseload energy, as opposed to the more intermittent energy produced by renewable sources.
Environmentalists: 'The public wants lands preserved'
Public sentiment to preserve national monuments remains high. Colorado College's 2024 State of the Rockies Conservation in the West poll found that 85 percent of Western voters support creating new national parks, national monuments and wildlife refuges and tribal protected areas to protect historic sites or areas of outdoor recreation.
The survey also found that 71% of Republican voters in the West are more likely to support a leader who 'designated new national parks and national monuments.'
'This dangerous order could roll back decades of protection to sacrifice hundreds of cherished national monuments and other protected public lands to fossil fuel and mining corporations,' said Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. He said beloved places such as the Grand Canyon watershed, national monuments, wildlife refuges and countless other public lands will now all be open for industrial development.
"We'll fight like hell for their protection.'
Other groups also rose to support public land preservation, citing not only the loss of irreplaceable lands and waters, but the decimation of the nation's $640 billion recreation economy.
Janessa Goldbeck, the CEO of Vet Voice Foundation, said was one of many people who said that national monuments and protected lands bolster local economies.
"The lands support jobs and small businesses," she said, and provide low-cost recreational opportunities for families, hunters and fishers and outdoor enthusiasts. "For veterans and military families, these lands offer places to reconnect and find peace."
"Secretary Burgum has to decide if he will be a force for chaos or consistency on America's public lands,' Rokala said. 'When Donald Trump inevitably orders him to illegally revoke existing permits for renewable energy, will he have the spine to tell the president 'no'?' And, she asked, if Burgum was pressed to ignore the laws the protect the U.S.'s lands, waters and wildlife, 'will Burgum tell the oligarchs 'no'?"
Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @debkrol.
Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.
