Last Friday, President Obama designated three more national monuments to the chagrin of conservative opponents who see this process to preserve America's last wild places as a cynical way to lock up exploitable natural resources. The designations bring the Current Occupant's count to 19, the most of any president, but behind Carter, Clinton and Roosevelt in total area of lands protected from development by law. The Basin and Range National Monument protects 704,000 acres of undeveloped desert wilderness in Nevada, the largest designation he has made. The Monument surrounds a monumental sculpture entitled
City made of earth and stone set within the context of the surrounding desert landscape. The sculpture erected on private land and supported by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, joins ancient pictographs inscribed in stone by native peoples. The desert is an important migration route for mule deer and pronghorn, as well as habitat for the sage grouse. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) was instrumental in getting the designation signed. The need for preservation of landscape is apparent as the nation's national parks
grapple with the influx of more visitors wanting to enjoy the benefits of communing with nature. What they are finding instead are traffic jams and lines that they could have experienced without leaving their cities.
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| "City" by Michael Heizer |
Berryessa-Snow Mountain in Northern California was also designated. It streches 100 miles long and rises from near sea level to 7000 ft. The mountain is a biodiversity hotspot and also provides numerous recreational opportunities. The monument began its journey to federal protection as a 7,000 acre donation to the University of California-Davis by the Homestake Mining Company. A partnership of university people, the state Fish & Wildlife department, landowners and the BLM formed the Blue-Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area Partnership and soon acquired 60,000 more acres. the idea of protecting a corridor of land from the edge of San Francisco to the Pacific Northwest forests took hold as the Berryessa-Snow Mountain National Conservation Area. Repugnant opposition in Congress killed that idea, so the national monument route had to be taken to protect this important wild land corridor of the inner California Coast Range.
Congressional backlash against the President's use of the Antiquities Act authority continues. Last week the House approved an admendment to the Interior Department's spending bill that would block the use of federal money to implement the desination of national monuments in 17 counties across the west. GOP leaders pulled the bill the following day, so the fate of the small-minded effort block designations remains undecided.
