A national monument that was not on the original list of 27 national monuments whose boundaries were to be reviewed by the Secretary of the Interior, may be threatened with revision or elimination after all. In April, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review national monuments established since 1996 that are larger than 100,000 acres. Castle Mountain National Monument, located in San Bernardino County near the Nevada border, is only 21,000 acres. However, Castle Mountain surrounds an 8,300-acre open pit gold-mining operation, Newcastle Gold. The Los Angeles Times reports that Congressman Paul Cook of Yucca Valley sent Zinke a letter, and then met with Newcastle and Zinke in June, to discuss reducing the size of Castle Mountain by 50 percent, partly because Newcastle needs room to expand its operations. Cook claims there was no public input prior to President Obama creating Castle Mountain National Monument through the Antiquities Act. Conservationists and environmentalists are furious that Cook and Zinke were trying to reverse the national monument status of Castle Mountain, but Cook calls these groups “extremists” who are trying to shut down mining in the desert.
http://www.desertdispatch.com/opinion/20170823/review-of-monuments-designation-justified
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-monument-gold-mine-20170828-story,amp.html
