“I firmly believe our local ranchers and community stakeholders are the best experts in ensuring Nevada’s lands are preserved, protected and accessible”. Berryessa Snow Mountain was ahead of us in getting going. The area supplies water for millions of people and supports a wide range of outdoor activities, including hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, off-highway vehicle use, horseback riding, mountain biking and rafting. California Coastal chinook salmon and Northern California steelhead spawn in the area’s waterways. The community is anxious to get the land under the auspices of the National Park Service. The White House said the monument would likely prompt increased visits, driving economic growth. “It is really a attractive place and we need to protect that because with the tremendous growth in Las Vegas area that will be destroyed”.
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The Basin and Range is significantly larger than the president’s previously biggest national monument, the nearly-500,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico.
One Republican approved. “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”, said ex- first lady Laura Bush.
Baylor University oversaw site excavation over the next 20 years, discovering the remains of 24 adult and juvenile Columbian mammoths, a saber-toothed cat, a giant tortoise, a Western camel and American alligator.
Local government, educational institutions, philanthropic organizations, and local businesses and tourism offices have demonstrated their strong support for protecting the site.
“This new national monument will benefit the city’s economy as well as schoolchildren, scientists and other visitors to this site”, said Suzanne Dixon, senior director of regional operations for the National Parks Conservation Association.
“Our public lands are a birthright of all Americans and President Obama continues to build a strong conservation legacy through their expansion and protection”, National Wildlife Federation president Collin O’Mara said in a statement. It includes remains from some the earliest humans to live in Nevada including petroglyphs and prehistoric art.
This undated photo provided by Triple Aught Foundation shows part of an artwork by Michael Heizer called “City” near Garden Valley, Nev. She said it also allows traditional ranching practices, recreational opportunities, future scientific study and use by the defense department.
When asked about the Native American artifacts at the Basin and Range National Monument site in Nevada, including cave paintings, he said, “Ah, bull crap”.
The site will be managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
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Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to bring to 19 the number of new monuments he has designated since 2009.
