A Monumental Error: Re-evaluating Our National Monuments and Public Lands

LCV
LCV
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

By Betsy Lopez-Wagner, LCV’s Chispa communications director

* This article previously ran in Spanish in La Opinión on August 22, 2017.

National parks and monuments across the country are facing new threats from Donald Trump’s administration. Not only does President Trump’s appalling budget propose devastating cuts to the departments and agencies charged with managing our public lands and waters, but Trump has also issued an unprecedented executive order, which instructed Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to “review” all national monuments designated by presidents since 1996. This “review” could unravel dozens of national monuments designations — including important places that provide many Latino families and communities of color access to the outdoors and tell our history.

One thing is clear: the public wants to keep all of our national monuments protected. In fact, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) partnered with our state affiliates and a broad coalition of community organizations and advocates, like the Hispanic Access Foundation, to help the public submit more than 2.6 million comments in support of our national monuments. The overwhelming flood of grassroots enthusiasm from people across the country during the public comment period included many voices in the southwest calling on Trump and Zinke to maintain protections for national monuments designated in states like California and Arizona — people in this country don’t want to see a reversal of our monuments, nor do we want to see them industrialized.

LCV’s Chispa Arizona team visits the Sonoran Desert

LCV’s Chispa Arizona team recently visited the Sonoran Desert National Monument, located an hour southwest of Phoenix. President Bill Clinton designated the Sonoran Desert National Monument in 2001 to help preserve what he described as a “desert ecosystem with an extraordinary array of biological, scientific, and historic resources.” The monument, a part of the National Landscape Conservation System, includes mountains, trails, and extensive forests of saguaro cacti, which provide excellent opportunities for outdoor recreation and for locals, they feel a rich cultural connection to the land. As we walked through the desert with the sun on our backs, we paused to observe the mountains and the beauty of a tall cactus before us — I felt an undeniably whole and in touch with surroundings by simply visiting this monument.

And just a few states further west, in California, communities treasure their outdoor spaces too. Each weekend, families in the Los Angeles area flock to local trails to hike, bike, and spend time with their families. Los Angeles is especially unique because several stunning national monuments are within driving distance, including the San Gabriel National Monument and the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

In fact, LCV recently joined Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Friends of the Carrizo Plain, and others to tour the Carrizo Plain National Monument. This vast area, which spans 205,000 acres in central California, was the sight of the famous “superbloom” of colorful flowers and is referred to as “California’s Serengeti” during drier seasons.

This fantastic landscape is also home to cultural treasures that tell the stories of the indigenous people who lived in what is present day California centuries ago. Painted Rock, for instance, is a large sandstone formation that is held sacred by Chumash people. The site holds thousands of years of history, displaying pictographs that date back nearly 4,000 years. Unfortunately, much of this important history was ravaged by years of vandalism before being designated as a monument. While these aren’t the kinds of riches valued by Trump, we the people know we must protect this rich cultural history or risk losing it, as was once the trajectory of Carrizo Plain.

The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, which consists of mountains and forests overlooking Los Angeles, serves as a space for families and those living in the urban areas, as an outdoors space to enjoy together — one that is accessible for all communities, but especially for low-income and communities of color in the Los Angeles area.

Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27) and local groups worked for more than a decade to strengthen protections for the San Gabriel Mountains, and President Barack Obama designated the national monument in 2014. Groups, like San Gabriel Mountains Forever, and environmental justice activists are fighting to ensure that communities of color feel welcome in the monument. These groups are making the San Gabriels more accessible. They have also been at the forefront of pushing for multilingual rangers and staff to greet visitors to the monument.

President Trump’s so-called “review” threatens the Sonoran Desert, Carrizo Plain, and San Gabriel Mountains national monuments along with many other public lands and waters that help define who we are as a nation. This “review” is part of a coordinated attack to sell of our iconic places to the highest bidder.

LCV’s Chispa Communications Director Betsy Lopez-Wagner and her son enjoy public lands together

We must speak out in support of our parks and monuments to our elected officials, on social media and by visiting these places and sharing what they mean to us. As a mother of a two-year-old son, I couldn’t image raising him without a visit to Alabama’s Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, a place I visited for the first time two years ago to experience a critical time in our nation’s history, or Giant Sequoia National Monument, located in his native California, to experience the wonder of trees the size of giants near where we took some of our earliest photographs as a family.

The administration’s review ends on August 24. We must raise the voices of the local communities who frequent these monuments, make our voices heard that these are our lands, and keep up the fight to protect the special places that belong to all of us and must remain public.

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LCV

Written by

LCV

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into state, local, and national priorities.

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