The results of a poll released Thursday show a plurality of Americans trust local residents over government officials to make judgments on national monument designations.
A Morning Consult/Politico poll found that 32 percent of Americans believe state residents are better suited to make decisions about national monuments than local representatives, state governors or federal officials.
“The poll shows exactly what the Trump Administration has argued all along: local stakeholders should have more of a say in how federal lands in their communities are managed,” DOI spokeswoman Heather Swift told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.
The poll comes as Interior secretary Ryan Zinke is finishing a review of 27 national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act. The act allows the president to “declare by public proclamation” national monuments to protect land of historic or scientific significance.
President Donald Trump ordered in April a review of designations over 100,000 acres to ensure they were made with “adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.”
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