Fox & Friends baselessly accuses admin of “secret” “land grab” plan

Doocy: Document “says that the government may be on the verge of grabbing 12, 13 million acres.” On March 11, Fox & Friends hosts Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy hosted the Heritage Foundation's Becky Dunlop to discuss how “somebody got their hands on this Department of Interior document that says that the government may be on the verge of grabbing 12, 13 million acres designating them as federal monuments.” According to The Washington Post [archive], Dunlop resigned her position as an assistant secretary in the Interior Department in 1989 after Republicans and Democrats in Congress “expressed fears that Dunlap was attempting to take two of the government's most sought-after positions and fill them with political appointees.”

Carlson: Memo is a “secret document” and it's a “sinister” plan to “tie up land.” Carlson stated that “some would argue” that the national monument designation is “a cover. It's a cover for what they actually want to do which is what you're alluding to, which is to tie up this land so that we can't mine this land in the future. Do you believe it's that sinister and this is why it's sort of a secret document?”:

DUNLOP: The national monument designation actually takes land and makes it similar to national park land, which means there can really be no development and limited, not no activity, but limited activities. So it would really lock up coal and other minerals which we really need for energy, national security issues and jobs.

DOOCY: What's the monument part? National monument - usually people think that you're going to put a national monument on it.

DUNLOP: It's just a designation.

DOOCY: OK.

DUNLOP: It's a designation.

CARLSON: Well some would argue it's a cover. It's a cover for what they actually want to do which is what you're alluding to, which is to tie up this land so that we can't mine this land in the future. Do you believe it's that sinister and this is why it's sort of a secret document?

DUNLOP: Well the sinister part is lack of transparency. Our government - the way our government was founded, it was for the people to be involved in making decisions. The designation of national monuments is something that the president can do without going to Congress, which means there's really no public debate --

DOOCY: Yeah.

DUNLOP:--and the people are not considered in this decision. [Fox & Friends, 03/11/10]

During the segment, an on-screen graphic appeared calling the memo the “administration's secret agenda”:

Carlson: Obama is “planning a massive land grab.” On March 10, Carlson stated, “Information from a leaked memo show[s] how President Obama's administration is planning a massive land grab to designate more than 13 million acres of resource rich land across 11 states as federally controlled national monuments.” Carlson and co-host Brian Kilmeade then hosted Bishop who said he wants to reform the process to give states “some say in what happens.” Carlson asked “Are you saying environmentalists are in bed with the administration, and that they say they want to put up national monuments, but in fact, they want to keep land away from being able to be refined for resources?” Bishop said it's a “concern.”

“Secret” memo lists 14 areas that “may be good candidates” for Monument status

Memo lists 14 “candidates” for National Monument designation. The Department of Interior memo lists 14 areas in Western states that “may be good candidates for National Monument designation under the Antiquities Act” and three areas “worthy of protection that are ineligible for Monument Designation and unlikely to receive legislative protection in the near term.”

FoxNews.com contradicts Doocy's claim that government is considering “grabbing 12, 13 million acres.” A February 18 FoxNews.com article reported that the 14 areas listed “total more than 13 million acres.” Contrary to Doocy's claim that “the government may be on the verge of grabbing 12, 13 million acres,” FoxNews.com reported, “Sources say President Obama is likely to choose two or three sites from the list, depending on their size, conservation value and the development threat to each one's environment.”

Memo indicates that assessment of public support would be completed before final decisions. Contrary to Dunlop's assertion that “there's really no public debate and the people are not considered in this decision,” the memo itself states that “further evaluations should be completed prior to any final decision, including an assessment of public and Congressional support.”

Interior Department: Memo was for “brainstorming,” and no decisions have been made

New York Times: DOI spokesperson said “the list was not secret at all.” The New York Times reported February 20 that a “spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior, Kendra Barkoff, said the list was not secret at all, but simply a 'very, very, very preliminary,' internal working document resulting from a brainstorming session that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a Democrat and former senator from Colorado, had requested about the lands in the West.” It quoted her statement that "[n]o decisions have been made about which areas, if any, might merit more serious review and consideration." From the Times article:

A new monument fight erupted this week when Representative Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah, said he had uncovered a “secret” Interior Department memorandum suggesting that the federal government was considering national monument designation for 14 huge blocks of land in nine states from Montana to New Mexico.

A spokeswoman for the Department of the Interior, Kendra Barkoff, said the list was not secret at all, but simply a “very, very, very preliminary,” internal working document resulting from a brainstorming session that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a Democrat and former senator from Colorado, had requested about the lands in the West.

“No decisions have been made about which areas, if any, might merit more serious review and consideration,” Ms. Barkoff said in a statement.

[...]

Ms. Barkoff at the Interior Department said in an interview that Mr. Salazar, as Colorado's attorney general, United States senator and secretary of the interior, had a history of seeking consensus, and that any discussion of monument designation would be open to public and Congressional involvement.

Barkoff said Salazar asked for “brainstorming” about “which areas might be worth considering for further review.” The Hill also reported that Barkoff said the memo was “the fruit of 'brainstorming' within Interior's Bureau of Land Management,” and quoted her as saying, “Secretary Salazar believes it is important that the Department of the Interior serve as wise stewards of the places that matter most to Americans. For that reason, he has asked DOI's bureaus to think about what areas might be worth considering for further review for possible special management or Congressional designation.”