07.10.15

Ranking Member Grijalva Applauds President Obama for Designating Three New National Monuments Under the Antiquities Act

This has been updated from the original version to note the correct name of Waco Mammoth National Monument. The original version incorrectly listed it as Mammoth Park National Monument.

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva today applauded President Obama for establishing three new national monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Obama announced the establishment of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas and the Basin and Range National Monument in Nevada.

“I applaud President Obama for upholding our great American tradition of conservation and for continuing to make wise use of the Antiquities Act,” Grijalva said. “We have a moral responsibility to conserve and protect vital habitat, natural scenery and historical treasures, and President Obama has met that responsibility again today. The law has proven its worth time and time again, and today’s announcements show why it continues to be one of our country’s most important conservation tools.”

For more than 100 years, both Democratic and Republican presidents have used the authority granted to them by Congress in the Antiquities Act to protect our most iconic landscapes and valuable cultural resources. Of the 137 Monuments created since 1906, 32 – including the Grand Canyon – were later redesignated as National Parks. The Antiquities Act authorizes the President to designate National Monuments on federal land only; these designations do not add any land to the federal estate.

Background on the New National Monuments

Berryessa Snow Mountain in California (to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management)

·         The Berryessa Snow Mountain region stretches nearly one hundred miles from Northwest Solano County to the flanks of Snow Mountain. It encompasses more than 350,000 acres across Napa, Mendocino, Lake, Solano and Yolo Counties.

·         The area is rich in biodiversity, including bald and golden eagles, black bears, mountain lions, tule elk, and rare plants found nowhere else on Earth. It’s also a habitat to so many different kinds of plants and animals that it has been named a biodiversity hotspot.

·         In February 2015, U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced legislation in the House (H.R. 761) and Senate (S. 393) to designate the 360,100 acre Berryessa Snow Mountain region as a National Monument.

Waco Mammoth in Texas (to be managed by the National Park Service)

·         The Waco Mammoth Site sits on more than 100 acres of wooded parkland along the Bosque River. It’s surrounded by oak, mesquite and cedar trees. The site provides a glimpse into the lives of Columbian mammoths, which died out approximately 10,000 years ago.

·         The first bones were discovered in the 1970s. The site remained closed to the public until the end of 2009.

·         Congressional legislation was introduced in 2010 and 2012 to create the Waco Mammoth National Monument and to include the site as a unit of the National Park Service. The bill passed the House of Representatives twice but died in the Senate both times.

Basin and Range in Nevada (to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management)

·         The area is home to at least two dozen threatened and sensitive species, including some found only in Nevada.

·         The landscape offers great opportunities to hike, hunt, climb, and explore in an area with thousands of archeological sites, critical wildlife habitat, and one of the biggest sculptures any contemporary artist has ever built.

·         It protects slices of prehistoric and pioneer life as well as distinctly American contemporary landscape art, providing a window to our past and a look towards the future that should be preserved.