National Monuments From Mr. Obama; New York Times, 8/26/16

Editorial Board, New York Times; National Monuments From Mr. Obama:

"On Wednesday, a day before the 100th birthday of the National Park Service, Mr. Obama designated 87,500 acres of Maine’s north woods as a national monument, to be added to the park system and protected by the service against commercial exploitation. The transaction cost the government nothing. The land belonged to Roxanne Quimby, who lived in the Maine woods before making a fortune as a co-founder of Burt’s Bees and accumulating property with the idea of turning it into a national park. Her family also provided an endowment of $20 million for maintenance.

Then, on Friday, Mr. Obama used the same authority to greatly expand a national marine monument (established a decade ago by President George W. Bush) off the coast of his native Hawaii. The monument will encompass 582,578 square miles of land and sea, and provide protection from commercial exploitation for an estimated 7,000 species that are increasingly stressed by climate change.

Both designations drew criticism — from timber interests in Maine, fishermen in Hawaii and officials in both places who resent federal stewardship. Though neither designation will impose economic hardship, there is invariably complaining whenever Washington asserts a public interest in land that states and private interests think should be theirs. But if presidents waited until there was complete agreement, Teddy Roosevelt would never have protected the Grand Canyon and Franklin Roosevelt would never have protected Joshua Tree National Park."