If President Teddy Roosevelt were alive, he'd have one word for a fellow Republican, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx of Watauga County: "Shame."
Foxx has filed legislation that would seriously undermine the federal Antiquities Act, the law empowering presidents to designate national monuments. Since the law was passed in 1906, 15 presidents have established monuments and protected natural, historical and prehistorical sites from development. Among those 15 was Roosevelt, whose face was carved in stone on Mount Rushmore, and others of Foxx's party, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush.
Through the Antiquities Act, these presidents secured some of America's most prized sites before mining and lumbering destroyed them, sites that quickly developed into prized attractions and tourism gold mines. For example, Roosevelt used the new law to preserve what is now Grand Canyon National Park. Even the conservative Arizona Republic decried the Foxx bill and two other bills aimed at the Antiquities Act. The newspaper said the bills would mean a "guarantee for delay, politics and pressure from special interests." The paper says the act "has been a valuable tool" and "America should keep it."
Although the Antiquities Act is a national measure, its impact is felt mostly in the American West, where many potential sites for national preservation await protection. It is in the West that mining, timber and ranching interests are most vocal, through their local politicians, in seeking to use federal lands, often near national parks, to extract short-term profit at the cost of long-term splendor and conservation. That led the Journal to ask Foxx spokesman Aaron Groen if there were a local reason for her bill. His answer: "There was no local situation that I know of. She filed it to give states and local communities a seat at the table when these executive decisions are being made."
The Antiquities Act has never been used in North Carolina, according to the National Park Service's website, although it was used by President Harry Truman to protect Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
America needs to preserve its most valued environmental treasures for today and the future. Congress should reject the Foxx bill. Teddy would want it that way.
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