Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum being sworn into a confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Jan. 16, 2025. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has directed federal officials to review and possibly revise all national monuments and mineral leasing withdrawals in the U.S., a move critics say could gut protections for Nevada’s most scenic landscapes.
The secretarial order issued Monday by the Department of the Interior calls for federal land managers to “suspend, revise, or rescind” a series of conservation policies, including oil, mining, and gas bans in sensitive locations. Burgum gave agency officials until Feb. 18 to submit an action plan on how to comply with his order.
“Today marks the beginning of an exciting chapter for the Department of the Interior,” Burgum said in a statement. “We are committed to working collaboratively to unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family.”
Critics in Nevada warn the order clears the path for the agency to redraw boundaries for Nevada’s national monuments created under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gives presidents the powers to protect sites considered ecologically valuable or culturally significant.
In recent years, the law has been targeted by Trump and Republican lawmakers, who argue the law gives presidents unilateral power to remove public land from private energy interests. During his first term, Trump reduced the size of two national monuments in Utah — Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears — by almost two million acres.
Burgum did not explicitly mention any monuments in his order, but cited the federal statute that corresponds to the 1906 law.
Since the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, 18 presidents – nine Democratic and nine Republican – have established or expanded more than 160 national monuments, according to the Congressional Research Service.
In Nevada, the Antiquities Act has spurred the creation of three national monuments since 2015: the Basin and Range National Monument in Nye County, and the Gold Butte National Monument, and the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Clark County.
Nevada’s fourth national monument, the Tule Springs Fossil Bed National Monument, was created by an act of Congress. Together, Nevada’s national monuments have conserved more than 153,000 acres of public land from development and extraction.
All four of Nevada’s national monuments were created under Democratic presidents.
Nevada’s most recent national monument, the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, was designated last year in March by former President Joe Biden. Nevada’s other three national monuments were created during the administration of former President Barack Obama.
Kim Garrison Means, a major player in the movement to create the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, condemned the Interior order.
Garrison Means said the work put in to create the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument was a community effort, and any move to redraw boundaries would be an “affront” to the state.
“We decided to pursue monument status to protect the landscape we hold dear — as a community decision, not a political one,” Garrison Means said. “Avi Kwa Ame National Monument is something our community takes pride in having achieved together, and any revocation of these boundaries now would be a direct affront to those living-room conversations and our local decision-making and autonomy.”
The legality of whether a president can change the boundaries of a previously established national monument is not clear, but is under review as part of an ongoing legal case involving Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments
This week’s order could spell trouble not just for the national monuments in the state, but also for several other natural landscapes in Nevada.
Before leaving office, Biden’s administration proposed a two year pause on new mining claims on thousands of acres of public land adjacent to Nevada’s Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, withdrawing the land from consideration for mineral and geothermal leasing.
The Trump administration’s order to “review all agency actions that potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources” could put the mineral withdrawal in the line of fire, despite fierce local opposition to water-intensive lithium mining in the area.
The Amargosa Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity previously sued to halt lithium mining in the area.
Mason Voehl, executive director of the Amargosa Conservancy, said Tribal nations, rural Nevada governments, and conservationists are unified in their belief the mining ban is needed to enhance “protections to precious groundwater resources in this region.”
“As leadership in the Department of the Interior reviews the proposed Amargosa mineral withdrawal, we trust they will come to understand and respect the position and the leadership of the local communities on this issue. Water is and will always be more valuable than any mineral when it comes to securing the economic future of the people of Amargosa Valley,” Voehl said.
Nevada’s scenic Ruby Mountains could also be at risk, despite a decision by the Biden administration in December to withdraw about 260,000 acres from mineral and geothermal leasing.
Nevada’s Ruby Mountains have been targeted by Trump in the past. During Trump’s first term, his administration proposed auctioning off more than 500,000 acres of land in Nevada for oil and gas drilling leases, including about 54,000 acres of Nevada’s Ruby Mountains.
In response, Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto sponsored a bill that would withdraw about 450,000 acres of land adjacent to the Ruby Mountain from any oil and gas leasing. However, the bill failed to advance in Congress.
Russell Kuhlman, the executive director of the Nevada Wildlife Federation, argued that the Antiquities Act of 1906 is one of the most valuable tools communities in Nevada have to protect culturally and ecologically valuable sites when Congress can’t.
“Every national monument designated in Nevada was done by bringing together all stakeholders and having strong grassroots campaigns led by the local community,” Kuhlman. “Relying on Congress to move faster than the threats Nevadans are seeing on public lands is not the pathway to ensure future generations experience our natural and cultural resources.”