Editorial: Protecting our resources

Thursday, June 8, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

Exactly 100 years ago today President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Antiquities Act, giving U.S. presidents the authority to designate areas or landmarks as national monuments.

The act, under which a president does not need congressional approval to create a monument, offered the first general legal protection of places based on their cultural or natural resources.

Areas can be protected because of historical or cultural significance, such as New Mexico's Chaco Canyon, established by Roosevelt in 1907. Or they may be set aside for their unique natural beauty, such as Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante, designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996.

Federal records show that 123 monuments have been designated since 1906, some of which later became, or were annexed into, national parks. Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Bryce Canyon and Joshua Tree national parks are among those that started as monuments. Lehman Caves, located in eastern Nevada, was designated a national monument in 1922 and later was folded into Great Basin National Park when it was created in 1986.

Some presidents have been generous in their use of the Antiquities Act. Clinton established 19 monuments while in office. Theodore Roosevelt established 18, and President Jimmy Carter established 15 monuments.

But the Antiquities Act hasn't been actively embraced by all White House administrations. Presidents Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush did not use it at all. President George W. Bush has used it only once - in February, when he designated the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City. The site, which covers about a third of an acre in Lower Manhattan, was a cemetery for free and enslaved blacks in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In its 100-year history the Antiquities Act also has withstood some strong opposition. In 2003 Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson and 18 other lawmakers, including Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., sought an amendment that would have greatly restricted the authority of presidents to establish monuments larger than 50,000 acres. Thankfully, this measure failed to survive.

In speaking about conservation in 1912, Roosevelt warned that future generations "will reproach us not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted." For 100 years the Antiquities Act has provided a valuable tool to prevent such waste. We can only hope it endures.