"National Monuments: Over 350 Parks Retirees Bash Zinke Review"

"More than 350 former National Park Service employees today disparaged Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendations to reduce the acreage of a half-dozen national monuments and alter the management plans of others. They also criticized the agency as 'utterly unconscionable' for failing to release a public report following its review of those sites.

In a letter to Zinke, the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks slammed Zinke's four-month review of more than two dozen monuments, framing it as 'antithetical' to the conservation legacy of his self-professed role model, President Theodore Roosevelt.

'This review has clearly been politically motivated and a monumental waste of government time and resources, especially when there are many other urgent issues facing our national parks and other public lands,' wrote CPANP Chairwoman Maureen Finnerty and former NPS employees."

Jennifer Yachnin reports for Greenwire October 17, 2017.