Clinton Administration Suggests Monument Status for Two More
California Sites
12/20/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Protected Status Proposed for 2 More State Sites; The
Clinton administration suggests Palm Springs mountains and
Central California's Carrizo Plain be named national
monuments.
Source: Los Angeles Times
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: December 20, 1999
Byline: BETTINA BOXALL
President Clinton's efforts to extend more protection to some of
California's federal lands is not ending with his interest in the
Pinnacles National Monument and the thousands of rocks and small
islands that do the coastline.
The administration also continues to eye a couple of other areas: the
sweeping grasslands of the Carrizo Plain in eastern San Luis Obispo
County and the steep mountains rising above Palm Springs.
"They are very different and equally compelling places," Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt said in an interview. The Central Coast plan
faces no apparent opposition, but the Palm Springs proposal is
raising some questions from local officials and developers.
Last week, Babbitt asked Clinton to add about 8,000 acres to the
Pinnacles monument south of San Jose, create two new monuments on
federal land in Arizona and give monument status to the many
federally owned islands and rocks within 12 miles of the California
coastline. Clinton signaled that he is willing to do that next year,
using his executive authority.
In the case of the Carrizo Plain and the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto
mountains above Palm Springs, Babbitt said the Administration hopes
that Congress, rather than the president, will take the necessary
action. U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) has a House bill
pending to add protections to the 250,000-acre Carrizo Plain and Rep.
Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs) intends to introduce legislation early
next year to create a Santa Rosa monument.
But Palm Springs officials are raising their eyebrows at the notion
of a monument in their backyard, and some residents are flatly
opposed to it. "The biggest question the council has is why, really
why?" said Palm Springs Mayor William G. Kleindienst. "We have a
long-standing history in Palm Springs of safeguarding our mountains."
Although the city remains officially neutral on the monument
proposal, Kleindienst expressed concern that the designation would
stop proposed developments on private land near and within the
monument.
The monument boundaries, as roughly outlined, would encompass 280,000
acres in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa ranges, 55,000 acres of which
are private. The rest is a patchwork belonging to the federal Bureau
of Land Management, the National Forest Service, the state and the
Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians.
Interior officials say the monument designation would not halt
development on the private parcels. The Palm Springs council has
nonetheless passed a resolution requesting that the monument
boundaries be drawn to exclude four proposed developments for golf
courses, hotels and homes.
"I want everyone to get away from, 'Wouldn't this be nice,' because
we don't know if it would be nice," Kleindienst said of the monument
proposal. He doesn't have to persuade Larry Paul, president of the
local Mountain Coalition, whose members include some mountain
landowners.
"We're for free and open access to Forest Service lands and we feel
this will be jeopardized with the establishment of a national
monument,"Paul said. He further contended that "there's nothing
significantly unique about this area that really qualifies as a
national monument."
Babbitt heartily disagrees, noting that in the 1920s, a national park
was proposed for the range. "One of the great sights of the West is
just about dawn in Palm Springs when the sun in the east illuminates
that mountain," he said.
Interior Department spokesmen said that activities permitted in
national monuments vary from site to site and that few changes would
occur in the Santa Rosas. With the status, mining would be barred and
the land would be permanently protected, whereas now, the federal
government could sell it.
Bill Havert, executive director of the Coachella Valley Mountains
Conservancy, says monument status would also promote the flow of
federal money to buy private parcels from willing sellers, one of the
reasons his group favors it. But he worries that Bono will include
too much in her bill, hindering its chances for passage.
Bono said she wants to write legislation "that works for everybody"
and if she can't, it will be up to Clinton to create the monument,
which he can do under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
Capps' bill would designate the Carrizo Plain a national conservation
area, rather than a monument, but a Babbitt spokesman said that would
satisfy the administration.
"There's a fear that if it's a national monument, people will be
trooping in," said Capps, adding that a conservation area would also
permit a greater local voice in management of the grasslands.
The dry plain, which Babbitt described as "one of the best-kept
secrets in California," is a reminder of what much of the Central
Valley looked like before it was plowed into lettuce and tomato
fields. The expansive grasslands are home to several endangered or
threatened species and contain one of the most visible exposures of
the San Andreas fault.
Most of the land is owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management,
which allows grazing--an activity that officials say would continue
under new protections. Capps said she sees no reason why her bill
can't pass in the next session. If either the Carrizo or Santa Rosa
legislation fails, Babbit indicated that the administration will move
ahead on its own.
"I do not exclude any of the many protection options that are
available," he said.
Another area the administration was considering for monument status,
the 18,500-acre Otay Mesa near San Diego, was recently declared a
wilderness area by Congress, making the monument designation
unnecessary.