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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Obama to preserve California public land

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will expand the California Coastal National Monument to include the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands, a White House official said Saturday.

Expected Tuesday, the action will permanently protect some 1,665 acres of federal lands on the Mendocino County coast in Northern California, just north of Point Arena.

It will expand a national monument created in 2000 by President Bill Clinton to include coastal bluffs and shelves, tide pools, onshore sand dunes, coastal prairies, riverbanks and the mouth and estuary of the Garcia River.

Obama pledged in this year’s State of the Union address to use his presidential authority to preserve more federal lands for future generations. The action he is taking this week will bypass Congress, which has been slow to act on proposed legislation to preserve public lands. Congress last week passed its first wilderness bill in five years, to designate a 32,000-acre area in Michigan.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is scheduled to visit the Point Arena area on Wednesday. She held a public listening session there last November to hear from the community about conserving the lands.

Obama has created nine national monuments using the authority Congress granted presidents under the Antiquities Act of 1906.