President Donald Trump’s executive order Wednesday to review national monuments wasn’t as broad as opponents feared, but it still could put Colorado’s Canyons of the Ancients at risk.

Trump asked the Interior Department to review national monuments designated since 1996 that are more than 100,000 acres.

President Clinton designated the original 164,000-acre-tract of the Canyons of the Ancients near Cortez in June 2000, because of its rich archaeological value and encroaching Western Slope development. The monument has been augmented to include 176,000 acres today.

“The archaeological record etched into this landscape is much more than isolated islands of architecture,” Clinton said in 2000. “The more than 20,000 archaeological sites reflect all the physical components of past human life: villages, field houses, check dams, reservoirs, great kivas, cliff dwellings, shrines, sacred springs, agricultural fields, petroglyphs, and sweat lodges. Some of the area has more than 100 sites per square mile.

“Because of the remoteness of the area and the protection efforts ‘of both the Bureau of Land Management and the local community, the integrity of most of these sites has been maintained. The growth of population and tourism in the Four Corners area will increasingly threaten these resources with vandalism and other types of degradation, making additional protections necessary.”

Monuments are designated by presidents to put what he deems the nation’s most valuable historical, cultural or environmental assets out of reach of drilling, mining and other development.

While monuments are off-limits to development, they teem  with tourism, outdoor recreation, plant and wildlife habitats and scientific research.

Colorado is home to eight national monuments encompassing more than 440,000 acres. The other seven are:

The fight in  Washington over national monuments spins out of a partisan brawl in Utah over the Bears Ears National Monument in the Four Corners region, as well. While Democrats and conservation groups say the 1.3 million acres are sacred to American Indians, Republicans saw Obama’s decision before leaving office as an abuse of power.

“The review of the monuments designated under the Antiquities Act is both warranted and necessary,” U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, said in a statement. “Today’s executive order signifies a shift in power from the federal government to the local communities who support these monuments and deserve to have a voice in the process.

“As the president and Secretary (Ryan) Zinke review the monuments in Colorado, I urge them to consider multi-user groups and recreation, community outreach, and the ability to fund and manage these important lands.”

Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Denver, called the order an “unprecedented attack” on preservation efforts created by the 1906 Antiquities Act.

“The president’s action is an affront to our communities and tribes that have spent years working to protect areas of cultural and historic significance,” Bennet said Wednesday. “It is also an infringement on our rural communities, which rely on national monuments and other public lands to support their outdoor recreation economy. We will continue to defend these designations in Colorado and the more than 150 additional national monuments around the country.”

Conservation Colorado, the state’s largest environmental group, appears ready to defend the Canyons of the Ancients, if the Trump administration seeks to revoke its protected status.

“It contains more sites and artifacts than its more famous neighbor, Mesa Verde National Park,” said Scott Braden, Conservation Colorado’s wilderness and public lands advocate.

“Attacking Colorado and the nation’s monuments and parks is wrong and outrageous, and President Trump and Secretary Zinke should be ashamed of undermining on our nation’s conservation legacy. We call on the Colorado congressional delegation to condemn this attack and tell bureaucrats in Washington that our lands should be celebrated  — not seized.”