U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending boundary revisions for “a handful” of national monuments, but no eliminations. It is not yet clear if any of the millions of acres of protected federal land in California will be modified, because the White House has yet to release the findings of Zinke’s review. Zinke made his recommendations Thursday morning, but hasn’t provided any additional details of his plan beyond one released earlier to downsize the Bears Ears monument in Utah and leave six others unchanged, including Sand to Snow. A summary statement released by the Interior Department revealed little that is not already general knowledge about the review. Five national monuments in California, including Mojave Trails in our own backyard, could be affected as part of Zinke’s review of all large national monuments created since 1996.
