National Monument (United States)
National Monument hot in the United States by the federal government designated protected areas or memorials, which are mainly from the National Park Service, the Ministry of Interior of a subordinate authority managed. You can preserve valuable natural areas or historically significant facilities. In particular, in the western United States are also historical buildings in valuable ecosystems, so that both types are combined.
Description
National Monuments can - in contrast to National Parks - to be built by the President without congressional approval. Theodore Roosevelt made the first use of this possibility when he protected the Devils Tower in Wyoming in this way on 24 September 1906. He was of the opinion that this could be destroyed before Congress would finally declare the area a national park. To date, approximately 100 natural and historically vulnerable places have been declared United States National Monument; the world's most well-known is the Statue of Liberty in front of New York City. By far the greater number of such protected areas are, however, in the western United States - concentrated in the state of Arizona.
The majority of National Monuments are managed by the National Park Service, but numerous protected areas fall under the supervision of other offices. This includes in particular the Bureau of Land Management ( Bureau of Land Management ), which includes the country geographically largest National Monument outside of Alaska - Grand Staircase- Escalante - is subject. The U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are responsible for the administration of National Monuments.
Although financially considered subordinate to the great National Parks, National Monuments are not necessarily less important than national parks with regard to attractiveness and size. Rather, some of them have all the characteristics of a national park on and learn sometimes - like the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado - a corresponding " appreciation ". In general, a National Monument, features, however, that a smaller number of natural resources shall be protected by him, as in national parks.
History
The National Monuments of the United States are the result of a law dating from 1906, which served the purpose of protecting prehistoric structures and tools of Indians in the western United States. The so-called " ancient law" ( Antiquities Act ) governed the legitimacy of archaeological research and found unauthorized looting and destruction of such sites is punishable. It also allowed the U.S. President historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures to provide as well as other objects of historical or scientific importance arbitrarily under the state protection of a national monument.
Of these national monuments was expected to protect small prehistoric sites with cultural background. But the passage " objects of ... scientific importance " from the Antiquities Act took President Theodore Roosevelt, three months later on the occasion, the Devils Tower called to protect from scientific reasons and to declare it for the first U.S. National Monument ( Devil's Tower ). In the same year the law with the establishment of the Petrified Forest National Monument (now National Park ) misused for the second time. The original idea of small cultural sites was therefore quickly outdated.
In 1908, Roosevelt attacked again on the " ancient law" back to now to explain to the Grand Canyon National Monument - with around 3,200 km ² a very large " object with scientific importance ". 1918 followed under President Woodrow Wilson then the Katmai National Monument, the first a little more than 4,000 km ², and later - after an upgrade - even covered around 11,000 km ². Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and Katmai were among the many national monuments, which were later declared by Congress to the National Park.
In Congress, there was no serious resistance to the extensive use of the Antiquities Act to establish new national monuments - especially in Arizona and Alaska that were temporarily not represent the only territories in Congress. Only with the establishment of the Jackson Hole National Monument by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943 began to stir in Congress for the first time serious resistance. To After the project, the Grand Teton National Park ( Wyoming) extend an acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. country foundered on the opposition of Congress, the President made use of short hand of the Antiquities Act and declared the area a national monument. The frequent misuse of the " ancient law" establishing new protected areas bypassing Congress sparked such protests that U.S. President rarely made use of this possibility in the following period.
Currently the largest National Monument outside of Alaska 's Grand Staircase- Escalante in southern Utah and was founded in 1996 by Bill Clinton. He met so that an initially critical decision and looked again there have been calls to restrict the sole control of the President.
Status and Amenities
From a tourism perspective, the differences between national parks and monumenten not play a major role. Many of the most popular - managed by the National Park Service - National Monuments offer the same infrastructure as national parks and can be visited with the National Park Pass. The protection status of the territories formally no different. All areas of the National Park Service are subject to the same legal basis, the Organic Act. In Monuments under the management of other agencies, particularly the Bureau of Land Management, but the hunt is often permitted, which is excluded in the monument of the National Park Service.