National Monuments in the United States
In the United States, national monuments are protected areas or memorials designated by the federal government , the majority of which are administered by the National Park Service , an agency under the Department of the Interior . You can preserve valuable natural spaces or historically significant facilities. In the western United States in particular, historical buildings are also located in valuable ecosystems, so both types are combined.
description
National Monuments can be erected by Congress and, unlike national parks, by the President by means of a Presidential Proclamation without the approval of Congress . The legal basis is the Antiquities Act (Pub.L. 59-209) of 1906. Theodore Roosevelt first made use of this option when he protected the Devils Tower in Wyoming in this way on September 24, 1906 . He believed it could be destroyed before Congress finally declared the area a national park . To date, nearly 130 places in need of conservation and monument protection have been declared United States National Monument ; the world's most famous is the Statue of Liberty in front of the city of New York . The far greater number of such protected areas are, however, in the western United States - concentrated in the state of Arizona .
Most of the National Monuments are administered by the National Park Service , but many protected areas are also under the supervision of other agencies. These include, in particular, the Bureau of Land Management , which is also responsible for the largest national monument in terms of land area outside of Alaska - Grand Staircase-Escalante . The US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are also entrusted with the administration of a large number of National Monuments. There is also support from other US authorities. Individuals are also looked after jointly by two authorities.
Although financially subordinate to the large national parks, national monuments are not necessarily less important than national parks in terms of attractiveness and size. Rather, some of them have all the characteristics of a national park and sometimes experience - like the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado - a corresponding “upgrade”. As a rule, however, a national monument indicates that a smaller number of natural resources are protected in it than in national parks.
history
The national monuments of the United States are the result of a law dating from 1906 that was used to protect prehistoric structures and tools used by Indians in the western United States. The so-called "Antiquities Act" ( Antiquities Act ) regulated the legitimacy of archaeological investigations and made unauthorized looting and destruction of such sites illegal. It also allowed the US President to put historical landmarks, historical and prehistoric buildings and other objects of historical or scientific importance under the state protection of a national monument.
These national monuments were expected to protect small prehistoric sites with a cultural background. But three months later , President Theodore Roosevelt took the passage " Objects of ... scientific importance " from the Antiquities Act as an opportunity to protect the so-called Devils Tower for scientific reasons and to declare it the first US national monument. In the same year, with the establishment of the Petrified Forest National Monument (now a national park) , the law was misused for the second time. The original idea of small cultural sites was therefore quickly outdated.
In 1908 Roosevelt again resorted to the Antiquities Act in order to now declare the Grand Canyon a national monument - with around 3,200 km² a very large "object of scientific importance". In 1918, under President Woodrow Wilson , the Katmai National Monument followed , which initially covered a little more than 4,000 km² and later - after an expansion - even around 11,000 km². Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, and Katmai were among the numerous national monuments that were later designated as national parks by Congress.
There was no serious opposition in Congress to the extensive use of the Antiquities Act to build new national monuments - particularly in Arizona and Alaska , the only territories temporarily unrepresented in Congress. It was only with the erection of the Jackson Hole National Monument by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 that serious opposition arose in Congress for the first time. After the plan to expand the Grand Teton National Park ( Wyoming ) by a land acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. failed due to opposition from Congress, the President used the Antiquities Act and declared the area a national monument. The frequent abuse of the Antiquities Act to establish new protected areas bypassing Congress triggered such protests that US presidents made less use of this option in the following years. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford , had no National Monuments at all. That changed again with the presidency of Jimmy Carter . Carter identified 16 National Monuments. Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush then indicated no new areas. Bill Clinton identified 19 National Monuments, more than Theodore Roosevelt's 18. George W. Bush then turned out six. With 26 National Monuments, Barack Obama had the largest number of all presidents.
The largest national monument outside of Alaska was Grand Staircase-Escalante in southern Utah and was only founded in 1996 by Bill Clinton . In doing so, he made a decision that was initially viewed critically, and there were once again demands that the President's sole power of disposal be restricted. On August 24, 2017, US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke presented the results of a review commissioned by US President Donald Trump of the 27 major National Monuments appointed over the past two decades. According to this, the area of six National Monuments should be reduced in some cases significantly in order to enable mining, logging or fishing there, namely the National Monuments Bears Ears , Grand Staircase-Escalante , Gold Butte , Cascade Siskiyou , Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll . Seven other National Monuments should not be reduced in size, but their commercial use should be made possible again. On December 4, 2017, President Donald Trump ordered the protective area of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to be nearly halved and that of the Bears Ears National Monument to be reduced by 85 percent. As a reason, he stated that the original demarcation did not meet the requirements of the legal basis and would be much too large. In US history, sixteen national monuments have been reduced in area eighteen times by US presidents. From 1962 to 2017 there was no further area reduction. Trump's reduction in the area of the two National Monuments is the largest reduction in US history. Lawsuits have been filed against these reductions. They were submitted by the five local Indian tribes, the outdoor clothing company Patagonia and various nature and environmental protection associations. According to the lawsuits, Trump's land reductions are illegal.
Status and equipment
From a touristic point of view, the differences between national parks and monuments do not play a major role. Many of the most popular - managed by the National Park Service - national monuments offer the same infrastructure as national parks and can also be visited with the national park pass. The protected status of the areas does not differ formally either. All areas of the National Park Service are subject to the same legal basis, the Organic Act . However, hunting is often permitted in monuments managed by other agencies, notably the Bureau of Land Management, which is excluded in National Park Service monuments.
overview
National Monument | view | State | founding | surface |
---|---|---|---|---|
Admiralty Island | Alaska | December 1, 1978 | 4,127.2 km² | |
African Burial Ground | new York | February 27, 2006 | 0.001 km² | |
Agate Fossil Beds | Nebraska | June 14, 1997 | 12.4 km² | |
Agua Fria | Arizona | January 11, 2000 | 287.2 km² | |
Aleutian Islands World War II | Alaska | December 5, 2008 | 20.0 km² | |
Alibates Flint Quarries | Texas | August 31, 1965 | 5.5 km² | |
Aniakchak | Alaska | December 1, 1978 | 555.1 km² | |
Aztec ruins | New Mexico | January 24, 1923 | 1.3 km² | |
Bandolier | New Mexico | February 11, 1916 | 136.3 km² | |
Basin and Range | Nevada | July 10, 2015 | 2,847.3 km² | |
Bears Ears | Utah | December 28, 2016 | 817.0 km² | |
Belmont-Paul Women's Equality | Washington, DC | April 12, 2016 | 0.001 km² | |
Berryessa Snow Mountain | California | July 10, 2015 | 1,338.6 km² | |
Birmingham Civil Rights | Alabama | January 12, 2017 | 0.004 km² | |
Booker T. Washington | Virginia | April 2, 1956 | 1.0 km² | |
Browns Canyon | Colorado | 19th February 2015 | 87.4 km² | |
Buck Island Reef | American Virgin Islands | December 28, 1961 | 77.0 km² | |
Cabrillo | California | October 14, 1913 | 0.6 km² | |
California Coastal | California | January 11, 2000 | 10.6 km² | |
Camp Nelson Heritage | Kentucky | October 26, 2018 | 1.5 km² | |
Canyon De Chelly | Arizona | April 1, 1931 | 339.3 km² | |
Canyons of the Ancients | Colorado | June 9, 2000 | 713.7 km² | |
Capulin Volcano | New Mexico | August 9, 1916 | 3.2 km² | |
Carrizo Plain | California | January 17, 2001 | 854.1 km² | |
Casa Grande Ruins | Arizona | August 3, 1918 | 1.9 km² | |
Cascade-Siskiyou | Oregon | June 9, 2000 | 264.4 km² | |
Castillo de San Marcos | Florida | October 15, 1924 | 0.1 km² | |
Castle Clinton | new York | August 12, 1946 | 0.004 km² | |
Castle Mountains | California | February 12, 2016 | 85.1 km² | |
Cedar Breaks | Utah | August 22, 1933 | 24.9 km² | |
Cesar E. Chaves | California | October 8, 2012 | 0.5 km² | |
Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers | Ohio | March 25.2013 | 0.2 km² | |
Chimney skirt | Colorado | November 21, 2012 | 19.1 km² | |
Chiricahua | Arizona | April 18, 1924 | 48.7 km² | |
Colorado | Colorado | May 24, 1911 | 83.1 km² | |
Craters of the Moon | Idaho | May 2, 1924 | 216.3 km² | |
Devils Postpile | California | July 6, 1911 | 3.2 km² | |
Devils Tower | Wyoming | September 24, 1906 | 5.5 km² | |
Dinosaur | Colorado , Utah | October 4, 1915 | 851.0 km² | |
Effigy Mounds | Iowa | October 25, 1949 | 10.2 km² | |
El Malpais | New Mexico | December 31, 1987 | 462.7 km² | |
El Morro | New Mexico | December 8, 1906 | 5.2 km² | |
Florissant fossil | Colorado | 20th August 1969 | 25.5 km² | |
Fort Frederica | Georgia | May 26, 1936 | 1.2 km² | |
Fort Matanzas | Florida | October 15, 1924 | 1.2 km² | |
Fort McHenry | Maryland | March 3, 1925 | 0.2 km² | |
Fort Monroe | Virginia | November 1, 2011 | 1.5 km² | |
Fort Ord | California | April 20, 2012 | 59.3 km² | |
Fort Pulaski | Georgia | October 15, 1924 | 22.8 km² | |
Fort Stanwix | new York | August 21, 1935 | 0.1 km² | |
Fort Union | New Mexico | April 5th 1956 | 2.9 km² | |
Fossil butte | Wyoming | October 23, 1972 | 33.2 km² | |
Freedom Riders | Alabama | January 12, 2017 | 0.02 km² | |
George Washington Birthplace | Virginia | January 23, 1930 | 2.6 km² | |
George Washington Carver | Missouri | July 14, 1943 | 0.8 km² | |
Giant Sequoia | California | April 15, 2000 | 1,427.0 km² | |
Gila Cliff Dwellings | New Mexico | November 16, 1907 | 2.2 km² | |
Gold butte | Nevada | December 28, 2016 | 1,201.7 km² | |
Governors Island | new York | January 19, 2001 | 0.1 km² | |
Grand Canyon Parashant | Arizona | January 11, 2000 | 4,132.0 km² | |
Grand Portage | Minnesota | January 27, 1960 | 2.9 km² | |
Grand Staircase-Escalante | Utah | September 18, 1996 | 4,062.5 km² | |
Hagerman Fossil Beds | Idaho | November 18, 1988 | 17.6 km² | |
Hanford Reach | Washington | June 9, 2000 | 768.9 km² | |
Hohokam Pima | Arizona | October 21, 1972 | 6.8 km² | |
Homestead | Nebraska | March 19, 1936 | 0.9 km² | |
Hovenweep | Colorado , Utah | March 2, 1923 | 3.2 km² | |
Ironwood Forest | Arizona | June 9, 2000 | 522.3 km² | |
Jewel Cave | South Dakota | February 7, 1908 | 5.2 km² | |
John Day Fossil Beds | Oregon | October 26, 1974 | 56.9 km² | |
Jurassic | Utah | March 12, 2019 | 3.4 km² | |
Cape Krusenstern | Alaska | December 1, 1978 | 2,626.8 km² | |
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks | New Mexico | January 17, 2001 | 18.8 km² | |
Katahdin Woods and Waters | Maine | October 24, 2016 | 354.4 km² | |
Lava Beds | California | November 21, 1925 | 189.0 km² | |
Little Bighorn Battlefield | Montana | July 1, 1940 | 3.1 km² | |
Mariana's Trench Marine | Northern Mariana Islands , Guam | January 6, 2009 | 247,172.6 km² | |
Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home | Mississippi | March 12, 2019 | ? Note | |
Mill Springs Battlefield | Kentucky | March 12, 2019 | ? Note | |
Misty Fjords | Alaska | December 1, 1978 | 9,283.3 km² | |
Mojave trails | California | February 12, 2016 | 6,475.0 km² | |
Montezuma Castle | Arizona | December 8, 1906 | 4.1 km² | |
Mount St. Helens | Washington | August 27, 1982 | 458.1 km² | |
Muir Woods | California | January 9, 1908 | 2.2 km² | |
Natural bridges | Utah | April 16, 1908 | 30.9 km² | |
Navajo | Arizona | March 20, 1909 | 1.5 km² | |
Newberry | Oregon | 5th November 1990 | 232.0 km² | |
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine | Massachusetts | 15th September 2016 | 12,724.6 km² | |
Oregon Caves | Oregon | July 12, 1909 | 18.4 km² | |
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks | New Mexico | May 21, 2014 | 1,697.8 km² | |
Organ Pipe Cactus | Arizona | April 13, 1937 | 1,338.3 km² | |
Pacific Remote Islands Marine | US Minor Outlying Islands | January 6, 2009 | 1,270,477.6 km² | |
Papahānaumokuākea Marine | Hawaii | June 15, 2006 | 1,508,864.7 km² | |
Petroglyph | New Mexico | June 27, 1990 | 29.2 km² | |
Pipe Spring | Arizona | May 31, 1923 | 0.2 km² | |
Pipestone | Minnesota | August 25, 1937 | 1.1 km² | |
Pompey's Pillar | Montana | January 17, 2001 | 0.2 km² | |
Poverty Point | Louisiana | October 31, 1988 | 3.7 km² | |
Prehistoric Trackways | New Mexico | March 30, 2009 | 21.4 km² | |
President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home | Washington, DC | July 7, 2000 | 0.01 km² | |
Pullman | Illinois | 19th February 2015 | 0.002 km² | |
Rainbow Bridge | Utah | May 30, 1910 | 0.6 km² | |
Rose Atoll Marine | American Samoa | January 6, 2009 | 34,839.6 km² | |
Russell Cave | Alabama | May 11, 1961 | 1.3 km² | |
Río Grande del Norte | New Mexico | March 25.2013 | 982.2 km² | |
Saint Francis Dam Disaster | California | March 12, 2019 | 1.4 km² | |
Salinas Pueblo Missions | New Mexico | November 1, 1909 | 4.3 km² | |
San Gabriel Mountains | California | October 10, 2014 | 1,397.1 km² | |
San Juan Islands | Washington | March 25.2013 | 3.9 km² | |
Sand to Snow | California | February 12, 2016 | 623.2 km² | |
Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains | California | October 24, 2000 | 1,133.2 km² | |
Scott's bluff | Nebraska | December 12, 1919 | 12.2 km² | |
Sonoran Desert | Arizona | January 17, 2001 | 1,968.4 km² | |
Statue of Liberty | new York | October 15, 1924 | 0.2 km² | |
Stonewall | new York | June 24, 2016 | 0.03 km² | |
Sunset Crater Volcano | Arizona | May 26, 1930 | 12.3 km² | |
Timpanogos Cave | Utah | October 14, 1922 | 1.0 km² | |
Tonto | Arizona | December 19, 1907 | 4.5 km² | |
Tule Lake | California | December 5, 2008 | ||
Tule Springs Fossil Beds | Nevada | 19th December 2014 | 91.7 km² | |
Tuzigoot | Arizona | July 25, 1939 | 3.3 km² | |
Upper Missouri River Breaks | Montana | January 17, 2001 | 1,527.1 km² | |
Vermilion Cliffs | Arizona | November 9, 2000 | 1,131.4 km² | |
Virgin Islands Coral Reef | American Virgin Islands | January 17, 2001 | 51.4 km² | |
Waco Mammoth | Texas | July 10, 2015 | 0.4 km² | |
Walnut Canyon | Arizona | November 30, 1915 | 14.3 km² | |
Wupatki | Arizona | December 9, 1924 | 143.3 km² | |
Yucca House | Colorado | December 19, 1919 | 0.1 km² |
See also
- National natural monuments in Germany
- Federal inventory of landscapes and natural monuments of national importance in Switzerland
Web links
- National Park Service (English)
- Bureau of Land Management (English)
- US Forest Service (English)
- US Fish and Wildlife Service (English)
supporting documents
- ^ A b "Antiquities Act 1906-2006: Maps, facts and figures" . nps.gov . US National Park Service list of designations, area enlargements and reductions.
- ↑ Carolin Wahnbaeck: "Trump's attack on the nature reserves" , Spiegel Online from October 10, 2017
- ^ Presidential Proclamation Modifying the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument . December 4, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
- ↑ Keith Schneider, Trump dramatically shrinks two national monuments in Utah, assailing rule by 'distant bureaucrats' Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2017.
- ^ NPS Archeology Program: Antiquities Act Centennial. Retrieved April 19, 2019 .