Could Trump reverse the Katahdin Woods and Waters monument?
Courtesy / Jeff Pidot, National Resources Council of Maine
An additional view of the east branch of the Penobscot River from within a section of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument during the fall.
COURTESY / MARK PICARD, NATIONAL RESOURCES COUNCIL OF MAINE
A view of the east branch of the Penobscot River from within a section of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
A number of Republicans in Congress have lobbied President-elect Donald Trump to eliminate a number of the national monuments established by President Obama during his two-term tenure, including the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
The president-elect, according to the Bangor Daily News, did mention his opposition to the Katahdin Woods and Waters monument at an Oct. 15 campaign stop in Bangor.
“This decision, done at the stroke of a pen without the support of the local community, undermines the people that live and work right here in Maine,” Trump said at the time.
But according to the BDN, it might not be all that easy for Trump to undo the nearly two dozen national monuments established by President Obama, if at all possible.
The BDN cited a 1938 opinion by Attorney General Homer Cummings, who worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. According to the nonprofit media organization High Country News, the interior secretary asked Roosevelt to abolish the Castle Pinckney National Monument in Charleston, S.C., but Cummings told Roosevelt that the American Antiquities Act would prevent that from happening. Since then, according to the BDN, no president has attempted to abolish a national monument.
But the BDN reported that some opponents say an attorney’s opinion doesn’t hold as much sway as an actual law or court ruling. A statement from the office of U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who was against the monument, said it’s too early to consider what will happen once Trump takes office.
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