The Interior Department under Gale Norton is quietly getting behind congressional efforts to roll back former President Clinton’s legacy of national monuments. Today, for instance, the National Park Service is set to come out in support of legislation to restore hunting at the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. The bill is expected to be the first of many to rework how monuments will be managed. Norton’s staff has signaled that the Interior Department will also support changes to withdraw protections for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. "The word we got, essentially, is that they want us to come up with a plan, and they’ll support it," said a spokesperson for Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah), an ardent opponent of the monument.
