James Kaiser says he has the best job in the world, and he might be right.
A 39-year-old Dartmouth University graduate, travel writer and photographer, the Maine native and part-time Ellsworth resident has traveled much of the world and written guidebooks to Acadia, Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree and Yosemite national parks, all former national monuments.
His work has, he says, given him insight into the legal skeleton upon which those national parks were built: The Antiquities Act of 1906.
That act is at the center of the controversy over Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and the visit to Maine this week by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
Kaiser created an infographic that provides a snapshot of the breadth of the law and how it has helped shape the United States since President Theodore Roosevelt first used it.
That act, Kaiser says, allows presidents a quick way to bypass the congressional lawmaking process, which can take decades, and preserve aspects of the country.
“This simple law — just 423 words — granted Roosevelt and all future presidents a new superpower. With the swipe of a pen, a president could proclaim a national monument on federal land that held ‘historic or scientific interest,’” Kaiser wrote on his blog.
Here’s his infographic:
