lakeport >> The Lakeport City Council defied President Donald Trump and adopted a resolution to support the protection of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
President Barack Obama declared the region a monument in July of 2015. The decision had broad support from local and state lawmakers and was widely regarded as a means to attract tourism to the area, as well as protect the land.
However, in April of this year, President Trump signed an executive order for a review of all national monuments established under the Antiquities Act over the past 21 years. That decision could potentially eliminate protections.
The President’s order includes any monuments that are over 100,000 acres. It could affect 22 national monuments.
To protect the work of many entities that lobbied to have Berryessa Snow Mountain declared a National Monument and continue preserving the area, Victoria Brandon from the Sierra Club, said there would need to support from all of the counties that the Berryessa Snow Mountain Region encompasses.
“This is an area, aside from its natural resources and cultural resources, that also has a tremendous recreational potential,” Brandon said. “We are hoping to protect all the monuments. They are all really important and have something special about them.”
Brandon added currently there is a Monument Manager that is based in the Ukiah Field Office and several workshops have been held to gather input from the community. A draft of a management plan is currently in the works and is expected to be released sometime this year.
The reason behind the decision to set aside Berryessa Snow Mountain is to conserve, protect and enhance the area’s ecological, scenic, wildlife, cultural, historical, natural, educational and scientific resources.
The region encompasses over 350,000 acres across seven different counties. This area does not apply to private properties and other non-Federal lands.
City Manager Margaret Silveira said the city is looking to support the permanent protection of the National Monument and in part because of the recent executive order.
“Back in February we did a resolution for this and some things have changed so we brought it back,” Margaret said.
Brandon said there will be a continuous effort to get input from this county as well as others in the Snow Mountain Region. Two-thirds of the Region resides in Lake County and enough input needs to be put in by July 10.
