For the past several years, BlueRibbon Coalition has been sounding the alarm on a potential national monument designation just east of Fresno, California. The Range of Light National Monument is a proposal to lock up 1.4 million acres – basically encompassing the entire Sierra National Forest. The proposal is to connect Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks by way of abusing the Antiquities Act. In 2022 California representative Jackie Speier introduced the Range of Light National Monument Act which never gained enough traction to actually be passed. The Antiquities Act should not be used as a tool to achieve policy outcomes that have clearly failed to earn widespread support in Congress.
Here are Five Reasons to oppose the Range of Light National Monument
- Low Public Support: Congress has signaled it has no interest in designating the Range of Light National Monument. The president should not be able to lock up 1.4 million acres of land that even all of the California members of Congress do not support. Legislation has been introduced for years and has never been passed, therefore it does not have widespread support.
- Puts California Forests and Communities at Risk: It would include significant portions of the area that was devastated by the Creek Fire. A National Monument designation will only make it more difficult to actively manage 1.4 million acres to mitigate wildfire risk since protective restrictions will take priority over management projects.
- Will Limit Recreation Access in the Sierra National Forest: The groups that support the creation of this national monument historically support closing roads, access, natural resources and every other aspect of human use on our public lands. Because this area is still managed as multiple use it contains numerous popular and iconic offroad trails and snowmobiling areas.
- Antiquities Act Designations Are Supposed to be Small: 1.4 million acres is a massive national monument, it would be one of the largest in the nation. It would essentially expand the two national parks rendering this area of California inaccessible to most of the public.
- Illegal Boundaries: The boundaries for this monument encompass the lands between the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park. The boundaries aren’t designed around protecting specific objects as the Antiquities Act requires. As with most currently proposed monuments, those proposing this monument have filled in an area on a map they want to “protect.” They will likely conjure up ways to justify the boundaries later.
According to the Unite the Parks Organization map below, the monument would extend Wilderness and restrictive management directives.
