Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending changes to a “handful” of national monuments, according to the Associated Press. Zinke didn’t specify which, but based on an interim report released in June, he may recommend that Bears Ears National Monument in Utah be shrunk in size. If President Donald Trump decides to act on Zinke’s recommendations, that will almost surely lead to litigation.

Zinke’s report to the president comes about four months after Trump signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to review the designation of 27 national monuments created since 1996, and comprising about 553 million acres of land and sea. Trump said the goal of the review was to end an abuse of power that’s resulted in a “massive…

Continue reading…