The Trump administration is reviewing the boundaries of several national monuments, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Semafor.
“When we’re taking a look, we have an executive order from President Trump to review these, to say, Are they the appropriate size?” Burgum told the news outlet Friday.
“We’ll go through a thorough review,” he said. But, he added, “this is not a top priority for the administration.”
The national monuments include Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon, Ironwood Forest, Chuckwalla, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — national monuments spread across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah, according to the Washington Post.
New Mexico’s congressional delegation slammed the news.
“I don’t think it can be overstated how strong a connection there is between our community and our mountains,” state Sen. Jeff Steinborn, a Las Cruces Democrat who was among the monument’s original proponents, told the Albuquerque Journal. “It’s really beloved.”