Law Commons^™

Preserving Monumental Landscapes Under The Antiquities Act, Christine A. Klein

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article examines the Antiquities Act, a 1906 statute that delegates authority to the President to establish national monuments on federal lands for the protection of prehistoric structures and relics. This modest statute, originally a scant one page in length, has set off a century of intermittent controversy that its drafters could not have anticipated. Although Congress probably intended that the statute merely protect archaeological ruins from looting by treasure hunters, presidents quickly began to utilize the statute to preserve large natural landscapes -- ranging from President Theodore Roosevelt's establishment of the 800,000-acre Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908 to …

Concluding Comments, Peter Dea

Coalbed Methane Development in the Intermountain West (April 4-5)

3 pages.

The National Wildlife Refuge System And The Hallmarks Of Modern Organic Legislation, Robert L. Fischman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This article explores the origins and precise meaning of the term "organic act," which is widely used in public land law. The evolution in the meaning of the term reflects larger shifts in the role of legislation in public resource management. The article illustrates this with an analysis of the 1997 Refuge Improvement Act, a substantial revision of the charter for the Refuge System and the first major statute governing public land management enacted since the 1970s.

The Refuge System's "dominant use" regime is an important model for sustainable resource management. The article describes this regime in the context of …