Colorado National Monument was created by a president, not by Congress. Was that a bad thing?

Let me say right up front that I understand why the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is very friendly with senators and congressmen who predominantly belong to the Republican Party. The simple fact is that they tend to be more supportive of motorcyclist issues than Democrats. Probably the very best from a biker’s perspective is Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, of Wisconsin.

That said, I don’t like the direction the AMA seems to be going. The group’s membership spans the political spectrum but lately they’re sounding just a bit too Republican. I just don’t think that’s appropriate considering the membership.

Specifically, in the December 2015 and January 2016 issues of the group’s magazine, American Motorcyclist, they have said three times that President Obama has been “sidestepping Congress” by creating new national monuments by executive fiat.

What’s the issue? They say Obama is closing public lands to motorized recreation. What is he doing? He’s using the power that Congress gave to the president–all presidents–in 1906 when they passed the Antiquities Act. In the time since it was passed, 16 of the 19 presidents have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally create national monuments. They’ve used that power 137 times. In some cases, Congress came along later and turned those national monuments into national parks. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park used to be a monument. Great Sand Dunes National Park used to be a monument. They were created as monuments by presidents “sidestepping Congress” by following the law that Congress passed.

Just to get my biases out in the open here, I am a registered independent voter, who has little affection for the Republicans or Democrats, and I do work at the National Park Service (for a few more days) and the park service is one of the several agencies that administer national monuments.

So there’s no question that I love the national parks–don’t you?–and the monuments and the seashores, and all the rest. I also have some concern with creating any more of these things right now because they add to the National Park Service and other agency responsibilities without adding a penny more budget. You can’t keep doing that forever.

But this business of accusing Obama of “sidestepping Congress”–repeatedly!!–when he’s only doing what so many other presidents have done, just smacks too much of right-wing partisanship for me. The AMA a couple years ago hired former Colorado Rep. Wayne Allard as their legislative liaison and I wondered then if this would lead to a rightward tilt on policy. At the same time, I figured Allard might be more effective than someone else because he would be on good terms with the Republicans who control both houses of Congress. So I withheld judgment. Just wait and watch. Not everyone else did so. There were AMA members who protested right away about Allard’s appointment.

And that’s the point. The membership spans the political spectrum. The AMA has no business playing this partisanship game. And that’s exactly what this is.

And oh, by the way, the president who created the most acreage of new national monuments was George W. Bush, by a lot. Of course Bush’s monuments were largely in the Pacific around islands but do you suppose the scuba divers object to the restrictions these declarations created? And while Ronald Reagan was one of the three presidents who created no new national monuments while in office, he did sign 43 wilderness bills that rendered 10.6 million acres off-limits to motorized recreation. But of course he wasn’t side-stepping Congress. That doesn’t make those 10.6 million acres any less off limits.

And finally, I have to wonder about the interests of AMA members. I would guess the large majority are people who never ride off road anyway, but perhaps love the parks and monuments. Tough luck for the dirt-bike crowd, maybe, but that’s a trade-off the street-riding folks might be very willing to make. And depending on the piece of land, there may not even be dirt-bikers who are affected. I don’t really know.

So I have communicated my displeasure to the AMA. I’ll let you know what, if anything, they have to say to me.

Biker Quote for Today

I like to ride the canyons at night, when there’s a full moon, and you shut the engine off and coast downhill. — Keanu Reeves