President Obama will designate a 1,665-acre nature preserve on California’s coast a national monument, according to White House officials, signaling an increasingly muscular conservation policy. The new national monument includes the mouth and estuary of the Garcia River along with jagged bluffs, onshore dunes, tidal pools and meadows. It provides habitat for migratory waterfowl, shore birds and raptors as well as several fish species, including the imperiled black oyster catcher and chinook and coho salmon.
While Congress officially designates protection categories such as wilderness areas, national parks and wildlife refuges, the president can impose similar land-use restrictions through the creation of a national monument. Obama’s proclamation will require the federal government to develop a management plan with public input within three years, according to a White House official, and will require the protection of objects of national significance such as the area’s natural resources.
In July, the House unanimously approved a measure by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) to add the area to the California Coastal National Monument, a 1,100-mile marine preserve adjacent to the site that President Clinton declared in 2000. While the project received $2 million in the recently passed omnibus budget bill, a measure authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has not yet passed the Senate.
The sponsors of the measure in both chambers have urged Obama to use his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect the area. Congress just approved the first wilderness bill since 2009 on Tuesday — designating a 32,500-acre area in Michigan — but several senators remain resistant to protecting more public lands. While the administration has been reluctant in the past to declare many
monuments — the last time it did so was nearly a year ago, when Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar announced five designations before leaving office
— the administration is increasingly open to the idea. White House
counselor
John D. Podesta, who played a key role in crafting a national monuments strategy under Clinton, and said last year that
conservation should be put on an equal footing with energy development on federal lands,
has pushed for more designations since joining the West Wing staff this year...
more
And is NM mentioned? Oh yes. Washington Post reporter Juliet Eilperin includes this in her article:
While the new monument is smaller than others the administration is now
considering, including the nearly 500,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert
Peaks region near Las Cruces, N.M., congressional Republicans remain
opposed to any presidential use of the Antiquities Act...Mike Matz, who directs the Pew Charitable Trusts’ U.S. public lands
program, said that even putting aside a small area can yield major
benefits. “When it comes to protecting places, conservation
biologists will say that bigger is generally better to keep core habitat
intact, but even smaller spots can have significant ecological value
for specific species,” Matz said by e-mail. “I would say it’s all
significant environmentally and economically, and that a place like
Stornetta is as important to the local communities as Organ Mountains,
and both have ecological values that should be protected.”
With enviro biggies like the Sierra Club & Pew Charitable Trust pushing this, along with NM's two democrat Senators, you know we are in the cross-hairs. Will Obama honor Secretary Jewell's commitment there should be a local consensus before a National Monument is proclaimed? Or will Podesta in the White House play politics and demonstrate Obama's willingness to use his "pen"if Congress doesn't act? This could well be a test of who is really calling the shots at Interior, Jewell or Podesta.
I also wonder if other issues may be at play. Take the Keystone XL pipeline. Enviros are adamantly opposed, industry and Canada want it. I can visualize a scenario where Obama uses his pen to create a large national monument to placate the environmental groups and shortly after approves the pipeline project.
There is a consensus in the community to do something to protect the Organ Mtns. proper. There is absolutely no consensus on the rest of the lands. BLM has designated approx. 55,000 acres in the Organ Mtns. as an Area Of Critical Environmental Concern which has been through the BLM planning process, including public comment. If Obama designates an area much larger as a National Monument, it will be based on environmental big bucks and pure politics, not a consensus.
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