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California Representative Judy Chu and Senator Alex Padilla are asking President Joe Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to add 109,167 acres to the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, an area rich in historical and ecological significance that is within an hour’s drive of 18 million people.
Expanding the monument would increase its size by roughly a third and would also give the U.S. Forest Service greater ability to protect natural resources and manage crowds in areas left out of the 2014 monument designation by then-President Barack Obama. The San Gabriel Mountains watershed provides Los Angeles County with 70 percent of its open space and roughly 30 percent of its water.
In a June 8 letter to President Biden the lawmakers stressed the need for the president to act in the face of congressional inaction to consider conservation measures. “Our request would establish better protection for more areas of the San Gabriel Mountains for conservation and improve public access to a range that has served as a glorious backdrop to the downtown L.A. skyline in countless advertising campaigns and postcards,” said Senator Padilla.
BLM Restoration Landscapes: Arizona's Sky Islands
In celebration of the Bureau of Land Management's announcement of $161 million to fund Restoration Landscapes, Look West is highlighting landscapes across the West each day. Today's landscape—the 21st and final—is Arizona's Sky Islands, a mountainous region with a higher concentration of biodiversity than almost anywhere in the West. Restoration investments will reduce fuel loads, improve groundwater management in the San Pedro River drainage, protect critical wildlife migration corridors, and support recovery of threatened and endangered wildlife. The BLM will spend almost $9.6 million to restore more than 650,000 acres.
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BLM’s proposed rule seeks to curb one of the largest threats to agriculture in Montana: climate change. BLM’s mandate to facilitate a sustained yield for the cattle industry is at risk if grass can’t grow for livestock to eat because of extended drought, unpredictable floods and devastating wildfires.”
