Clinton Designates Several National Monuments

R I C H L A N D, Wash., Aug. 7, 2000 -- Skimming over the waves in his jet boat, Rich Steele gazed upon his beloved Columbia River and flashed a smile that threatened to stretch from shore to shore.

For 35 years, Steele had fought to protect this free-flowingstretch of the Columbia from development. Now, by presidentialdecree, it has become the Hanford Reach National Monument, andSteele could barely contain himself.

With the wind combing back his silvery hair, he scanned theriver, finding delights at every bend: a deer bounding along theshore, a heron launching itself with a squawk from a cottonwoodtree, swallows darting from chalky white bluffs.

“Ta-DAAH!” Steele sang, throwing his arms out wide. “I’ve got myself a monument. Pretty spectacular, don’t you think?”

Presidential Legacy on the Line

Across the West, environmental activists like Steele havesomething to celebrate these days. President Clinton, trying tocarve out an environmental legacy, has created or added 10national monuments covering nearly 4 million acres in the Westand administration officials have signaled more may be on the way.

The monuments protect an unprecedented array of natural wonders,from giant sequoias in California to archeological sites inColorado to ancient ironwood trees in Arizona. The Hanfordmonument, one of four created June 9, protects 51 river miles ofcritical spawning grounds for salmon and 195,000 acres ofsurrounding grass and brush land.

Clinton is relying on the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gives apresident unilateral authority to create national monuments onfederal land to protect “objects of historic and scientificinterest.”

The monument designation, first used by President TheodoreRoosevelt to protect the Grand Canyon, can remove land from mining,logging, grazing and other extractive uses that are allowed on muchof the nation’s 630 million acres of federal land.

Carter Holds Monument Record

Today, more than 100 monuments in 24 states and the VirginIslands cover about 70 million acres. Even more areas began asmonuments but were converted later to national parks by Congress,including Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Glacier Bay, Olympic andGrand Teton national parks.

President Jimmy Carter holds the record for the most land setaside in monuments, having protected 56 million acres in Alaska — much of which went on to become parks and preserves by order ofCongress.

In the lower 48 states, however, Clinton has put more land intonational monuments than any other president, even Teddy Roosevelt.

Holding press conferences in scenic spots has given Clinton achance to trumpet positive accomplishments in a presidency soiledby scandal.

“I believe maybe if there’s one thing that unites ourfractious, argumentative country across generations and parties andacross time, it is the love we have for our land,” Clinton said inJanuary as he created a national monument nearly doubling theprotected zone around the Grand Canyon.

But the monument designations have raised controversy of theirown. Critics complain that the designations bypass the normalgive-and-take of the political process because they require nocongressional approval.

“This process has no integrity,” said Sen. Larry Craig,R-Idaho, who has filed a bill in Congress that would prevent apresident from creating monuments without congressional approval.

“It’s a matter of ‘If you don’t legislate it, I’m going todecree it.’ I don’t think that’s the way a representative republicdoes it.”

Environmentalists Shut Out

Even environmentalists, as pleased as they are, have expressedsurprise at some of the new monuments, since they have been shutout of the decision-making process.

“There certainly is some logic to them once they getannounced,” said Charles Clusen, a public-lands specialist withthe Natural Resources Defense Council, “but we don’t really know alot about what they’re doing and when they do it.”

Clinton and Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbittconsider many factors, officials say: Does the land have adiversity of wildlife? Is it important historically? Is itthreatened by development? How strong is opposition to protectingthe area? And perhaps most important, is there at least some localsupport for creating a monument?

Finding grassroots allies has become an important part of theClinton administration’s approach — nowhere more so than alongHanford Reach, the subject of intense debate for decades.

Just a Place to Fish

Rich Steele, retired at age 67 from a career making plutonium atthe Hanford Nuclear Reservation, never guessed he’d be so importantto national policy. He just wanted a place to fish.

Steele fell in love with the river at age 9, fishing for bassfrom its banks. As he grew older, he realized how rare the wildstretch of water in his backyard was.

Hydroelectric dams had turned most of the Columbia into a chainof long reservoirs. But here in eastern Washington, in the 51 milesbetween Richland and the Priest Rapids Dam upstream, the riverflowed freely — the only undammed, non-tidal stretch of theColumbia in the United States.

The river and surrounding uplands had been preserved as asecurity buffer around the Hanford reservation, established in 1943to make plutonium for America’s nuclear arsenal.

Here, salmon and steelhead trout spawned on gravel bars washedclean by the current. Here, a few fishermen and boaters ignoredHanford’s nuclear reactors on the shore and focused instead on ariverscape of pure water, sandstone bluffs and a seamless desertsky.

“It was the best of all worlds,” Steele recalled. “No one hadheard about this place, and no one was doing anything to it. Iwould have been happy if everybody had just left it alone. But itjust wasn’t going to work out that way.”

In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it wanted tobuild a dam on the reach. Steele and others formed a group todefeat the proposal. Later, the same group fought government plansto dredge the river for a barge channel.

In the 1980s, Steele started campaigning to get Hanford Reachprotected under the Wild and Scenic River Act, a federalclassification that limits commercial development.

Steele gave boat rides to politicians, congressional staffers,journalists — “just about anyone I thought could help the cause.”

He practiced politics jet-boat style: Lobby guests in themorning while heading upstream in his 21-foot boat, the Can Do II.Then, in the heart of the reach, kill the engine, open the beercooler and let the river sell itself.

“I always had an unfair advantage,” Steele said. “How can younot want to protect this?”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., fell in love with the place andbecame one of its biggest champions in Congress. Steele named abeach after her.

As national environmental groups took note of Hanford Reach,momentum built during the 1980s for protecting it.

Opposition From Farmers

But local farmers opposed the idea, wanting to preserve optionsfor opening up nearby federal land for irrigated farmland. Countyofficials objected to the prospect of more federal regulations. AndDepartment of Energy officials at Hanford worried that it mightaffect their operations.

Congress called for a study. Completed in 1994 after six years,it recommended that the reach become a wild and scenic river, witha wildlife refuge along its northern shore.

After five more years of discussion, it appeared that an ad hoccommittee representing environmentalists, Indian tribes, farmersand local, state and federal governments was inching towardagreement. Then, in January of this year, the talks fell apart.

Secretary Babbitt, shopping for federal real estate in need ofprotecting, visited the reach in May. Two weeks later, herecommended to Clinton that the area be made a national monument. Aweek after that, on June 9, Clinton made the formal designation.

It was more than environmentalists had hoped for — and worsethan any compromise plan opponents had seen. A wild and scenicriver designation would have protected the river and a quarter-milestrip of shore on each side. The new monument did that and more,adding 97,000 acres to the north of the river and 75,000 acresalready in an ecological reserve on the nuclear reservation.

“All of a sudden, one individual in the United States makes thedetermination of how that land is going to be protected,” said MaxBenitz, a Benton County commissioner. “Why do we even have local governments?”

A similar refrain can be heard throughout the West in placeswhere Clinton has designated monuments.

In Utah, county governments are suing the Clinton administrationover the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante NationalMonument, created in 1996. Benitz said county commissioners aroundHanford Reach are researching their own legal options. So arecounty officials in southern Oregon, unhappy with the newCascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

Sen. Craig knocks Babbitt’s efforts to solicit public input as apale imitation of the public comment collected before Congressmakes land-use decisions. Three public meetings that Babbitt heldin Idaho to gather opinions about expanding Craters of the MoonNational Monument were the equivalent of “a drive-by shooting,”Craig said.

Babbitt remains undeterred in his search for potential newmonuments, said Interior spokesman John Wright. Administrationofficials aren’t saying how many more monuments are possible, butBabbitt continues to travel the West, poring over maps and meetingwith local residents.

Politicians’ Best Friend

Steele cut the engine, and sounds of the river emerged from thequiet. Whirlpools sloshed and swirled. Two ducks flapped overhead,and Steele started telling about his most celebrated river trip ofall.

On June 9, as Clinton signed Hanford Reach National Monumentinto creation back in the other Washington, Vice President Al Goretoured the Reach aboard Steele’s Can Do II with Sen. Murray andWashington Gov. Gary Locke.

Gore saluted local activists. “This is a good day,” hepronounced. Murray was beaming. A few guys from Gore’s staff stayed late to party with Steele. He said they hugged him, shook his handand kept thanking him for what he’d done.

“It was just beautiful,” Steele said.

Steele recognizes the frustration of his neighbors who think itunfair to trump a local compromise with a presidentialproclamation. Then again, “if I said it isn’t nice to win, I’d be lying to you,” he said. “I’ve wanted to beat those folks for a long time. We’ve been lucky. But I think it’s because we just happen to be on the right side.”

With that, Steele reached into his cooler and cracked open abeer, letting his boat drift with the river.