Like all Presidents,(some more than others) Executive Orders and the Antiquities Act(which allows the President to set aside National Monuments without Congressional Consent)gives them the ability to become instant open space creators.............

 The Rest of Interior's Leaked Documents on Creating National Monuments

Included is an outline on how to use executive powers and Antiquities Act to set aside BLM lands without Congressional approval.

By Jule Banville, 8-16-10

	Click here for the rest of what you may have been missing since February's leak.

The rest of a Dept. of Interior memo leaked in February regarding National Monument designation for vast tracts of land in the West is now online. In it, DOI advocates using executive powers and the Antiquities Act of 1906 "should the legislative process not prove fruitful" in setting aside 130 million to 140 million acres--roughly half of the Bureau of Land Management's holdings.

According to the New York Times' Green Blog, the first 14 pages were released following pressure from Republicans in Congress, notably U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, who who said the new details support his contention the Obama administration is planning to block energy development across millions of acres of Western lands.

"Thousands of Westerners whose livelihoods depend upon access to our public lands stand to be affected by these decisions, and yet this document blatantly goes out of its way to exclude their input or participation," Bishop said. "If there was any question about whether or not this administration has declared a war on the West, these new documents are evidence enough."

Bishop put up the latter half of the doc shortly after it was leaked. It included a list of "good candidates" for protected status, including the San Rafael Swell and Cedar Mesa region in Utah, Montana's Northern Prairie, the Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve in New Mexico, Vermillion Basin in Colorado and the Red Desert in Wyoming,

Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) put the "missing" pages online today "in the interest of full disclosure," but it's been available for a few days on other sites, including one maintained by the Americans For Responsible Recreational Access. 

The introduction of the document explains that the Dept. of Interior considers the land--"roughly equivalent in size to Colorado and Wyoming combined--to be eligible for conservation protection as "Treasured Lands."

Interior has maintained the document was put together for "brainstorming" and was not meant to be final or released to the public