Obama named more national monuments than any other president. However, the lands he designated as National Moments were already National Forests or BLM lands. They were public lands already. The only thing that designating them as National Monuments does is protected them from mining leases and timber sales. Some of them already were though as some of the National Monuments he designated included Federal Wilderness. You can fish National Monuments, hunt them, camp, explore, climb, ride, whatever you want to do in terms of recreation. In fact, in terms of recreation, federal lands are far less restrictive than state or locally owned public lands.
As to those that argue its a "land grab". They call it that to try to confuse those that don't know much about the public lands system we have. Calling it a "land grab" makes people think that government just seized those lands, when in fact its land that has always been public land.
Finally, presidents have always been able to designate National Monuments under the Antiquities Act. This is nothing new. Many of the jewels of our National Park System started out as National Monuments.
One last thing. Those industrial interests that want this land sold off or transferred to the state, want that because they know that there are only 3 states out West with enough of a tax base to manage large amounts of public land (Washington, California, and Colorado). The rest would have to open up the vast majority of those lands to mining, timber sales, and development, and that is exactly what those industry interests want. This is why most Westerners do not want those lands transferred to the states:
Poll: Most Westerners Don't Want Federal Lands Turned Over To States
