PORTLAND — Oregonians are waiting to find out what the Trump administration will do with the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument after news that two national monuments in Utah will be scaled back.
Oregon’s national monument is on the same Trump administration short list for boundary modifications as the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, but what modifications are planned for it are still unclear. The list also includes Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada.
The Obama administration nearly doubled the size of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to protect biological diversity, expanding it from 66,000 acres to 113,000 acres. The lands in southwest Oregon have long been at the center of a political struggle among loggers, off-road enthusiasts and environmentalists.
The expansion was immediately challenged by groups that argued it was illegal because the new boundaries included lands devoted to logging under federal statute.