Exact details of what will and won’t be allowed in the national monuments recently proposed in the territory by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will have to wait until President Clinton signs off on the recommendations.
In the meantime, Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen said Monday that she will hold town meetings on St. John, St. Thomas and St. Croix this week to get public comment on the monument designations, which are aimed at protecting coral reefs and other marine life.
Christensen said last week that she wrote a letter to Clinton detailing her concerns about Babbitt’s proposals, which would designate more than 30,000 acres of submerged lands near St. Croix and St. John as national monuments.
Christensen is worried that local fishermen will be hurt by the move, especially if fishing is prohibited in the monument boundaries.
On Monday, Mark Squillace, a special assistant to Babbitt, said that details of the monument proclamations won’t be released until Clinton signs off on them. That will happen within the next two weeks.
"What I can tell you is we tried to address issues, especially anchoring and fishing," Squillace said. "We did take to heart the concerns raised by fishermen."
Squillace, who was in the territory late last year for town meetings on protecting reef ecosystems, said he spoke to Christensen last week and will do so again after she holds her meetings.
The Antiquities Act authorizes the president to create national monuments on federal land to protect objects of historic and scientific interest. Because Clinton, as president, is not subject to the National Environmental Protection Act, the proposed monuments do not have to have an Environmental Impact Statement performed before they are designated.
To ensure that the monument designations weren’t a total surprise to V.I. government officials, Babbitt and other high-ranking Interior officials visited the territory last fall. Babbitt even donned snorkel gear to tour Buck Island Reef National Monument off of St. Croix.
"Babbitt went down to the Virgin Islands and we had meetings so that (the designations) wouldn’t come in the dark of the night," Squillace said.
The proposed Buck Island Monument expansion includes 18,135 acres of federal submerged lands within the three-mile belt around Buck Island. To view a map of the proposed expansion at Buck Island, click here.
The proposed Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument off of St. John, which is home to the Virgin Islands National Park, includes 12,708 acres of federal submerged lands within the three-mile belt off of St. John, including Hurricane Hole and areas north and south of St. John.
To view the proposed monument map for St. John click here.
The nature and extent of protection to be provided to each area — and the types of uses that would continue to be permitted — will be made public once the president decides to accept the secretary's recommendations, Squillace said. Because Clinton has signed off on a dozen of Babbitt’s earlier designations, he is expected to approve the latest recommendations.
"We are optimistic that the president will be signing these," he said.
Delegate Christensen’s town meetings will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 10, on St. Croix from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Curriculum Center at Kingshill; on Thursday, Jan. 11, on St. John at 3 p.m. at the Julius Sprauve School and on St. Thomas on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m. at the Frenchtown Community Center.
