In Boise visit, Interior Secretary Jewell talks firefighting, not national monuments

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell was careful not to signal what President Barack Obama might do to protect more areas as national monuments in the two weeks or so he has left in the White House.

But she said she had not come to Boise on Tuesday to consider the 2.5 million-acre Owyhee Canyonlands in southeastern Oregon for monument status, which Oregon and national environmental groups have been pushing for. The land would include Leslie Gulch, Succor Creek and other recreation areas popular with Idahoans.

“The president will continue to be in office until Jan. 20 and it will be up to him to decide if other areas warrant protection under the Antiquities Act,” Jewell said at a news conference at Boise’s National Interagency Fire Center.

“With every monument designation President Obama has done we have worked closely with communities on the ground to make sure we know all the issues,” Jewell said. But in Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands, Jewell told the Idaho Statesman editorial board, “I am not aware we have held an open public meeting in that area.”

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