Obama signs order creating North Woods national monument

Source: Bangor Daily News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Barack Obama signed into law the creation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on Wednesday, a day after landowner Roxanne Quimby transferred 87,563 acres of her property in Maine to the federal government.

The announcement of the signing was released by the White House at 10:30 a.m. It is the 25th executive order Obama has issued to create a monument since 2011. The monument is the nation’s 151st since 1906, according to a National Park Service listing. Of the nation’s 58 national parks, 36 began as monuments, including Acadia National Park.

Only Congress can create national parks, but presidents, under the American Antiquities Act of 1906, can create monuments simply by writing an order. Officials running the monument’s neighbor, Baxter State Park, posted a notice on social media on Wednesday morning in anticipation of the decree.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with our new neighbor, the Department of the Interior. Baxter Park has 100 miles of boundary and we share this boundary with around a dozen different landowners,” the statement reads. “We seek to have a good working relationship with all our neighbors and we look forward to doing the same with our newest one.”

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