Legislator leads push to make Berryessa lands a national monument

There may be better ways to see beautiful scenery, but Rep. Mike Thompson believes dragging the U.S. secretary of the interior on a vigorous slog through the driving rain was as good a way as any to show off the Berryessa Snow Mountain wilderness. Thompson, D-St. Helena, led Sally Jewell, the secretary, and several other federal officials on a soggy 3-mile hike Friday through mud, ankle-deep water, past mountain lion tracks and coyote scat and up a steep, slippery hillside just to make a point. He wants the head of the Interior Department to talk President Obama into declaring the 350,000 acres that stretch from the shores of Lake Berryessa to the flanks of Snow Mountain a national monument. “There was some mud that was a pain and we had to ford a creek, but it was very, very pretty,” Thompson said as he prepared for an afternoon public hearing during which locals also made their case to the interior secretary...more

Same old MO, hike it and then spike it.