New Lands for Play and Study in Nevada, California, and Texas

Three new national monuments were declared by President Obama today, in Nevada, California and Texas. Altogether they represent more than 100 million acres of new public land.

National monuments, as you might recall, are lands or historical places protected by Congress through legislation or--as in this case--by the president, through the use of the Antiquities Act. For example, two of our existing national monuments are Muir Woods and Giant Sequoia. The latter contains 38 of the 39 giant sequoia groves in Sequoia National Forest.

The new monuments are:

• Basin and Range in Nevada, the largest at 704,000 acres in a mostly undisturbed corner of the Great Basins area. It includes rock art dating back 4,000 years, as well as City, work by artist Michael Heizer that combines modern abstract architecture and engineering with ancient American design influences. 

• Berryessa Snow Mountain in California: This monument encompasses nearly 331,000 acres of public land in northern California's wild Inner Coast Range. It has been called "an intact ecological treasure located less than 100 miles from the Sacramento and San Francisco metropolitan areas...accessible to millions of Californians," by Mike Matz, director of Pew Charitable Trust's U.S. public lands program. 
• Waco Mammoth in Texas, a paleontological site featuring the well-preserved remains of 24 Columbian era mammoths from over 65,000 years ago, including the nation's first and only recorded discovery of a nursery herd of mammoths. Its excavations have also produced remains from other animals of that epoch, including the Western Camel, Saber-toothed Cat, Dwarf Antelope, American Alligator, and giant tortoise.

With these new designations, President Obama will have used the Antiquities Act to establish or expand 19 national monuments. Altogether, he has protected more than 260 million acres of public lands and waters.

For information on other national monuments, look at this fact sheet.