The U.S. Department of Interior includes Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve on a list of national monuments being reviewed under a presidential executive order.
The order looks at redesigning the acreage of the national monument, but only reviews and area expanded by President Bill Clinton in 2000. That area encompasses preserve land managed by the BLM.
The order could eventually change protections on the land to expand use for grazing and hunting.
A Butte County group pushing to get a national park designation for the monument portion of Craters says this isn't necessarily a step in the wrong direction.
"I am worried people will perceive it that way," Butte County Commissioner Rose Bernal said. "The landscape is not conducive to hunting, really, or obviously not to grazing. So it's one of the beauties of turning this into a park is that there really will be no land use change to the original monument, because it's not usable land. It's lava rock."
The Department on Interior opens a public comment periodMay 12.
