New national monuments coming in Texas, California, Nevada

“I am especially pleased to be able to announce three new designations that are going to be taking place in varied landscapes, but all of them speak to some incredible history”, Obama said as he signed the proclamations in the Oval Office.

Oak woodlands, rugged mountains, and mammoth bones are among the newest protected natural treasures in the United States, as President Barack Obama is expected to designate three new national monuments Friday.

Acting under a 1906 federal law called the Antiquities Act, Obama established Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in California, the Waco Mammoth National Monument in Texas and the Basin and Range National Monument in Nevada.

“The designation of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument marks the culmination of a long-standing effort to promote and protect the Berryessa Snow Mountain Wilderness”, Dodd said. The area, which is sparsely populated and undeveloped, serves as a migration corridor for large mammals such as mule deer and pronghorn, as well as habitat for imperiled species including the sage grouse, hoary bat and the flowering White River catseye. Artist Michael Heizer has also been constructing his City sculpture in the desert there since the 1970s, notes The New York Times.

Details on public access, trails and other issues at the property, which is owned by the BLM, and a bill in the U.S. Senate to protect it still need to be worked out, say backers, who are hopeful that Congress or Obama will preserve it by next year.

“This is so close to the Bay Area”, she said.

The designations were also praised today by two top Cabinet secretaries whose agencies will be involved in managing all three sites.

“Waco is thrilled to be on the National Park Service map”.

Reid, for his part, is hailing the president’s decision to use executive powers on Friday to protect some 1,100-square-miles as historic, and says it’ll last for generations. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, and “demonstrating that having friends in high places is more important than popular will of the people”.

Tourists and nature lovers in California will see more than 330,000 acres in northern California set aside for a new monument at Berryessa Snow Mountain. It permanently preserves 331,000 acres of existing federal land, rich with wildlife and a haven for recreational activity due to its close proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

“All of these move at their own pace”. Waco Mammoth National Monument includes the remains of 24 Columbian mammoths, “including the nation’s first and only recorded discovery of a nursery herd of mammoths”.

In April National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis toured the site and later said he would ask the Interior Department to seek Mr. Obama’s approval to designate the site a national monument. The excavation area also has produced remains from other animals of that epoch, including the Western Camel, Saber-toothed Cat, Dwarf Antelope, American Alligator, and giant tortoise. “The Waco Mammoth Site takes visitors back in time almost 65,000 years, and reminds us of our country’s connection to the history of our planet”.