COMMENTARY: A plan by Rep. Mark Amodei and Sen. Dean Heller to exempt Nevada from the Antiquities Act would be bad for the state

Recently, Rep. Mark Amodei and Sen. Dean Heller, both Nevada Republicans, introduced legislation to “prevent the threat of executive action designating or expanding national monuments without congressional approval or local support.” Their legislation would add Nevada to Wyoming as the only states exempt from presidential designation of national monuments under the Antiquities Act.

Their legislation is a reaction to President Obama’s designation of Gold Butte as a monument last month. A news release from Rep. Amodei says he “has always” supported a process that includes “input from interest groups, local communities and elected representatives,” insinuating that the designation of Gold Butte took place without this.

He went on to say that Nevadans “had no say in” the designation of Gold Butte. Gold Butte is located in Southern Nevada — an area outside Rep. Amodei’s district. I asked a couple of Southern Nevadans what they thought of his assertion that they had “no say in the matter” of Gold Butte.

Jaina Moan, executive director of Friends of Gold Butte, says, “The proclamation to make Gold Butte a national monument is the result of a long, transparent process. Concerned citizens worked for 15 years to achieve permanent protection for Gold Butte with strong, vocal support from tribes, community groups, sportsmen, recreationists, elected officials and many others. “

A young Sierra Club volunteer from Las Vegas echoes Ms. Moan. He wrote to me, “It angers me how Congressman Mark Amodei does not consider all the time and effort local volunteers have put in supporting the permanent protection of Gold Butte.”

Have Rep. Amodei and Sen. Heller forgotten that at least half of Nevada’s congressional delegation has supported monument designation for Gold Butte for years? Ms. Moan points out that “since 2008, legislation to protect Gold Butte was introduced twice in the Senate and three times in the House, but Congress failed to act.”

Why don’t Rep. Amodei and Sen. Heller recognize the tribes, elected officials, community groups, sportsmen, recreationists, elected officials and everyday people who supported the Gold Butte monument?

It is too bad that Rep. Amodei and Sen. Heller are letting their ideology get in the way of what is best for the state. In a 2014 study, the research firm Headwaters Economics found that local economies surrounding all 17 of the national monuments they studied expanded following the creation of new national monuments.

So Gold Butte had years of local support from Southern Nevadans and designation as a national monument will probably be an economic boon to the area. Yet Rep. Amodei and Sen. Heller want to effectively prohibit future designations in our state. Does that make sense?

We should look at Wyoming. In 1950, Congress amended the Antiquities Act to require congressional consent for the creation of any new national monuments in that state. This occurred in the midst of a huge fight over the designation of Jackson Hole National Monument and its addition to Grand Teton National Park.

In her recent book “The Hour of Land,” Utah writer Terry Tempest Williams tells the story of this fight. Ranchers in Jackson Hole were irate and, led by local rancher Cliff Hansen, they turned their cattle loose on the new monument. Hansen later became Wyoming’s governor and a U.S. senator. Ms. Tempest Williams notes “that before he died, he would admit that he had been on the wrong side of history” saying that, “I know I was wrong. Grand Teton National Park is one of the greatest natural assets of Wyoming and the nation.”

There have been no new national monuments in Wyoming since. But tourism thrives in Jackson Hole, next to the national monument the cowboys didn’t want. Teton County is the wealthiest county in Wyoming, and in 2010 it received $18.9 million in gross sales tax — much of it from visitors to the national park that was formerly a national monument.

In my view, the proposal by Rep. Amodei and Sen. Heller will do more harm than good.

Anne Macquarie is a volunteer with the Toiyabe (Nevada) chapter of the Sierra Club and is a resident of Carson City.