A Republican congressman from California is facing criticism from local environmental groups after sending a letter to the Secretary of the Interior in support of reducing two local national monuments.
Rep. Paul Cook was one of 16 Republican representatives to sign a June 30 letter asking Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to reduce or rescind 23 national monuments across the American West. Cook is specifically under fire for the letters’ recommendation for reducing the size of the Mojave Trails National Monument, which falls squarely within his district. The Mojave Trails National Monument was designated by President Barack Obama in February of 2016, and was one of 27 monuments put under review by President Trump in April of this year.
The Mojave Desert Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation group, condemned Cook for making the recommendation without meeting with local constituents or environmental groups.
“It is outrageous that Rep. Cook would go behind the backs of his constituents to argue that one of our Mojave Monuments be diminished,” Danielle Segura, executive director of the trust, said in a statement. “The Mojave Desert Land Trust has invested in this landscape for over a decade, and worked alongside many diverse local groups, to create this monument. Rep. Cook couldn’t even wait until the public had commented before trying to strip protections on land important to the local community.”
Cook responded to those criticisms in the local press by calling them “laughable at best.”
“Once the letter was submitted, it was published on the Western Caucus website and made available for anyone to view,” Cook said.
Cook went on to add that the Mojave Trails National Monument was expanded by Obama “without any public comment,” rendering the action illegitimate.
During the public comment period for Trump’s monument review, however, conservation groups amassed some 1,250 public comments expressing support for monuments in the Mojave.
Despite criticism from some conservative politicians that public land designations constitute government overreach, public monuments generally poll very well among the American public. A poll conducted by Colorado College in January found that a strong majority of Western voters want national monument designations to remain as they are, while a majority of voters in every state but Wyoming oppose expanding oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
That support for national monuments was also apparently reflected in the public comments submitted on Trump’s monuments review, which totaled over 2 million. According to an analysis from the Center for Western Priorities, 98 percent of comments submitted during the public comment period expressed support for maintaining or expanding public monument designations, while just 1 percent supported the idea of reducing the size of public monuments.