A National Monument in the United States is a protected area that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress. National monuments receive less funding and afford fewer protections to wildlife than national parks.

Another difference between a national monument and national park is the amount of diversity in what is being protected; national monuments aim to preserve at least one unique resource but do not have the amount of diversity of a national park (which are supposed to protect a host of unique features).[citation needed] However areas within and extending beyond national parks, monuments or national forests can be part of wilderness areas, which have an even greater degree of protection than a national park would alone, although wilderness areas managed by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management often allow hunting.

National monuments can be managed by one of several federal agencies; the National Park Service, US Forest Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service or by the Bureau of Land Management.

The power to grant national monuments comes from the Antiquities Act of 1906. President Theodore Roosevelt used the act to declare Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument. He thought Congress was moving too slowly and it would be ruined by the time they made it a national park.

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