Trump administration officials dismissed benefits of national monuments

[Arkansas Granny]

In a quest to shrink national monuments last year, senior Interior Department officials dismissed evidence that these public lands boosted tourism and spurred archaeological discoveries, according to documents the department released this month and retracted a day later.

The thousands of pages of email correspondence chart how Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his aides instead tailored their survey of protected sites to emphasize the value of logging, ranching, and energy development that would be unlocked if they were not designated as national monuments.

Comments that the department’s Freedom of Information Act officers made in the documents show that they sought to keep some of the references out of public view because they were “revealing [the] strategy” behind the review.

<snip>

The new documents show that as Zinke conducted his four-month review, Interior officials rejected material that would justify keeping protections in place and sought out evidence that could buttress the case for unraveling them.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-officials-dismissed-benefits-of-national-monuments/2018/07/23/5b8b1666-8b9a-11e8-a345-a1bf7847b375_story.html?utm_term=.7e6173fa2167&wpisrc=al_news__alert-hse--alert-national&wpmk=1

Just another example of special interest groups dictating Trump's policies.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Whoops.

Zinke proposed removing some of the forested areas within Cascade-Siskiyou, where three mountain ranges and several distinct ecosystems intersect, to “allow sustained-yield timber production.” Trump has yet to alter the site, which was established by Bill Clinton as a 65,000-acre monument and then enlarged by nearly 48,000 acres days before Obama left office.

These redactions came to light because Interior’s FOIA office sent out a batch of documents to journalists and advocacy groups on July 16 that they later removed online. ... “It appears that we inadvertently posted an incorrect version of the files for the most recent National Monuments production,” officials wrote July 17. “We are requesting that if you downloaded the files already to please delete those versions.”

Aaron Weiss, a spokesman for the advocacy group Center for Western Priorities, said in an email that the “botched document dump reveals what we’ve suspected all along: Secretary Zinke ignored clear warnings from his own staff that shrinking national monuments would put sacred archaeological and cultural sites at risk.” ... “Trying to hide those warnings from the public months later is disgraceful and possibly illegal,” Weiss added. ... Asked for comment, Interior Department officials said they were looking into the matter.

The inadvertently released documents show that department officials dismissed some evidence that contradicted the administration’s push to revise national monument designations, which are made under the 1906 American Antiquities Act. Estimates of increased tourism revenue, analyses that existing restrictions had not hurt fishing operators and agency reports that less vandalism occurred as a result of monument designations were all set aside.

Comment at the WaPo:

argentum 2345
1 minute ago

When I read of the corruption and deceit of Trump and his toadies, I'm reminded of the lyrics of a song Johnny Cash sung:

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's done in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God'll cut you down
Sooner or later God'll cut you down

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Yep, the gang that couldn't shoot straight strikes again.

[Freethinker65]

3. Privatizing public resources and consolidating wealth

This is why the GOP allows Trump to do, say, and tweet whatever the fuck he wants

[Totally Tunsie]

4. Zinke needs to go.

I've disliked his practices even more so than those of Pruitt, and think he's a danger to our environment and resources. Our country is under attack from within by the flagrant destruction
of the protection of our interior treasures.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Why do these assholes hate America?