LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week, the Lakeport City Council joined other public officials in restating support for the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, the status of which is now under review by the federal government.
President Barack Obama created the monument – which encompasses 331,000 acres of public lands in Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Mendocino, Napa, Yolo and Solano counties – in July 2015.
Two-thirds of the monument is located within Lake County’s boundaries, according to Victoria Brandon of the Sierra Club Lake Group.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing a review of the 22 national monuments created over the past 21 years – 100,000 acres or larger in size – under the Antiquities Act. Another executive order directed review of five national marine monuments.
Of the national monuments under review, California has the most of any state: In addition to Berryessa Snow Mountain, they include Carrizo Plain, Giant Sequoia, Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and San Gabriel Mountains.
On Tuesday, the Lakeport City Council heard a presentation from Brandon as part of considering a resolution to restate the council’s support for the monument designation.
Brandon, pointing out that the council members already knew why the designation is important, said that the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service have been engaged in an extensive planning process to devise a joint management plan for the public lands included in the monument. That’s because half of the monument is in BLM lands and half is in the Mendocino National Forest.
That planning process has included public meetings to get community input on uses on lands which Brandon said have tremendous potential for recreational activities.
She said a wide variety of stakeholders, from mountain bikers to the Back Country Horsemen, the Sierra Club, backroad vehicle groups and even the Lake County Rockhounds have been a part of it.
“All of this is ongoing,” she said.
She said there was a two-day meeting in Woodland in January to talk with the representatives of the various groups and federal agencies as part of creating the plan for combined management, which has to follow the rules of both the BLM and US Forest Service.
Brandon said a draft plan is set to be released sometime this year, which will begin a second round of public review.
She said a full-time monument manager, Rebecca Wong, has been hired and works out of the Ukiah BLM Office.
Everything was going well until Trump signed the April executive order to review the 22 national monuments, Brandon said.
She said the argument used to support the review process was that there wasn’t enough public input in making the monument designations in the first place.
“It absolutely wasn't true here,” she said.
In fact, from 2008 to 2014 there were numerous public meetings locally on the effort to get national monument status for the area, as Lake County News has reported.
Brandon said the creation of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument had public and local government support – all impacted counties and many cities passed resolutions to show support – as well as a resolution in support of the designation offered by the California Legislature, which Brandon said had never happened before.
Brandon said the involved agencies don’t know what the future is going to hold for the monument, and monetary resources are now being devoted to the review which could be better used elsewhere.
“We're hoping to protect all of the monuments. They're all really important and there’s something very special about them,” she said.
Brandon said the goal is to get the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument off the table with expressions of renewed support from local governments.
She said a request for support also will be taken to the Board of Supervisors at an upcoming meeting.
Brandon said support from local governments and community members is being requested by July 10, the end of the comment period.
She said the hope is that the management plan process can go forward, the designation will be protected and the region benefits from “this really remarkable place.”
Brandon also asked council members to submit individual comments to the government to support protecting the designation.
Councilman Kenny Parlet moved to approve the resolution supporting the monument, with Councilman Tim Barnes seconding and the council voting 5-0.
On Thursday, the 111th anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt signing the Antiquities Act into law, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra vowed to protect California’s national monuments.
Becerra sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke expressing his strong opposition to any attempt by the Trump Administration to revoke or weaken existing protections for national monuments.
“National monument designations protect the irreplaceable natural and cultural heritage that belongs to all Americans, ensuring that the haste or greed of one generation does not squander those gifts at the expense of future generations,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Any attempt by the Trump Administration to reverse decisions past presidents have made to safeguard our most treasured public lands is as unwise as it is unlawful. As the Attorney General of California, I am determined to take any and all action necessary to protect the American heritage which has become part of our monument lands.”
Becerra said that designating national monuments bestows important protections, which are otherwise nonexistent or insufficient, for large areas of cherished land.
In the letter, Becerra underscored that Trump simply has no legal authority to question monument designations made by a predecessor under the Antiquities Act.
Late last month, Congressman John Garamendi – one of the two members of Congress representing Lake County and a former deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior – submitted his comments on the Department of Interior’s review of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
“The Berryessa Snow Mountain is a national treasure,” Congressman Garamendi wrote. “Its unique biodiversity coupled with its rich Native American cultural heritage make it an ideal National Monument. The broad coalition of activists and lawmakers who worked to make this designation possible ensured that the Berryessa Snow Mountain would be protected without hindering pre-existing water rights or imposing new regulations on hunting, fishing, and motorized recreation.”
Garamendi’s letter highlighted the cultural, historical, and environmental importance of Berryessa Snow Mountain as well as the positive economic impact that it has on the region.
In a separate statement, Garamendi said that the Berryessa National Monument also provides a vital stimulus to the local small business economy.
“Many local businesses in the Berryessa area depend heavily on tourism, and this National Monument designation brings in visitors who support and expand local businesses. But most importantly, the National Monument designation protects the Berryessa Snow Mountain from falling victim to destructive resource exploitation and preserves the pristine and unblemished land for all to enjoy,” he said.
He added, “If the Trump administration wants to strip the Berryessa Snow Mountain of its National Monument status, then they can expect a fight.”
Tuleyome, the group that helped champion the monument’s formation, is offering online postcards for community members who want to support maintaining the designation.
Letters also can be submitted directly to the federal government online.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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