President Trump’s review of National Monument declarations makes a lot of sense. Prior presidents have designated a lot of our existing public lands as National Monuments with little to no public review or discussion on how public land should be used as part of such monuments.

The Bears Ear National Monument is particularly odious. The former president designated the national monument of 1.4 million acres only days before he left the White House — again with little public discussion on the uses of these lands. These public lands, previously open to a wide variety of uses and management strategies will be forever closed off to many uses.

1.4 million acres is a lot of land for a single person to decide should be forever locked up from most public use, with little public input. The entire Catskill Park — both public and private lands  — is only 700,000 acres, so the Bear Acres National Monument is twice the size of Catskill Park, defined by the whim of an executive who was leaving office with zero input of the public or it’s elected representatives.

Public lands belong to all Americans. The public should have a voice on how it’s governed, and no one man, no matter his or her power, should be able to force future wilderness status upon public lands without thoughtful review. While it’s true that National Monuments are not immediately declared wilderness, they are much like so-called “Primitive” Areas in the Adirondack Park, they will eventually be removed of all “non-compatible” features, and most future development of natural and recreational resources will be prevented.

It’s important that public lands belong the public hands, and that we the public should have a voice in the process of governing the lands. The public should have a voice both in natural resource development on their lands — a valuable source of funding to ensure the maintenance of these lands — and recreational use of the lands. Public lands should provide for the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run. This can’t be determined by the whim of one man in the White House as he’s packing his boxes on his final days.

It’s good that President Trump and his Interior Secretary Zinke has ordered a review of lands designated as National Monuments in the past twenty years, with an eye to modify their administration through an act of Congress. This is the lawful way to proceed. The public and it’s representatives should have a voice in administration of the land it owns, to make sure such public lands are administered for the benefit all Americans.

And going forward, the Antiquities Act should be curtailed to be a temporary, emergency-only power lasting only a few months that protects public lands against abuse until further administrative or congressional action occurs. It’s reasonable to give executive agencies the power to classify public lands and dictate their uses after careful consideration of public comments, but Congress should also have the explicit power to review and overturn their classifications, if the executive agency’s decisions are inconsistent with the public’s will.