Supporters of a campaign to extend national monument status to a stretch of scenic southern Mendocino County coastline will host U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on Friday in hopes that seeing the property for herself will convert her to their cause. Jewell will be joined by acting Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze in what advocates hope will prove a tipping point in their bid to expand the California Coastal National Monument so it includes the Stornetta Public Lands near Point Arena. “This is it,” said Merita Whatley, manager of the Point Arena Lighthouse and a leader in the Point Arena Merchants' Association. “We've been waiting for a year and a half, two years, for someone high up in the Interior Department to come see the lands and witness for themselves what we're talking about.” “This is, obviously, a hugely important project for Mendocino County,” Rep. Jared Huffman said, “where you have a tourist economy making up a huge part of the county's economic vitality, the branding that would come with national monument status, the additional visitations, not to mention the permanent environmental protection of this really important area.” The trip and “public listening session” at Point Arena City Hall is in part a result of repeated invitations by Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat whose district includes the land. Huffman introduced The California Coastal National Monument Expansion Act of 2013 in the House last spring, co-sponsoring with Rep. Mike Thompson, D—St. Helena. It also fits nicely into the new secretary's weeklong national tour to advance the Obama administration's conservation agenda, which Jewell outlined in a high-profile speech before the National Press Club last week...
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