State legislators push Obama on monuments

A group of 230 state legislators on Tuesday encouraged President Obama to brush aside Republican opposition and designate more public lands as national monuments. Public areas in the United States are valuable for tourism and outdoor recreation, the lawmakers said, but the threats of mining, logging and drilling put the lands at risk. “As legislators, we encourage action from Congress to protect these landscapes but, as you know, for the last three years Congress has passed just one bill to designate new wilderness,” they wrote. The lawmakers praised Obama for designating the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands in California as a national monument. But the state lawmakers told Obama he should push forward. They want him to declare the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico and Boulder-White Clouds in Idaho as monuments...more

Twenty-six of the signers were from NM.  To see who signed from each state you can review the letter here.