Penguin chick hatches at Oregon Zoo
The Oregon Zoo welcomed a fluffy little penguin chick that hatched earlier this month. This is the 194th Humboldt chick hatched at the zoo since the 1980s. Look at this obscure wonder!
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, a remote wilderness along the California-Oregon border, will lose all square footage after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected two challenges to its expansion. Never.
Logging interests and several Oregon counties asked the high court to cancel construction added to the monument in 2017. Their lawsuit alleges that President Barack Obama improperly designated the land because Congress had previously set aside the land for timber harvest, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. By achieving monument status, the area gained special protections such as a ban on logging.
The challenge to the expansion raised the broader question of whether the president’s power to unilaterally create national monuments under the Antiquities Act should be limited, the Chronicle said. Critics of the 1906 Act commonly oppose bids for new designations and argue that the Act gives too much power to the executive branch. The Supreme Court decided not to address this issue.
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“The monument and its expansion are now the law of the land,” said Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles, who represents groups supporting the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was established in 2000 to protect what is considered an ecologically valuable interface between the ancient Siskiyou Mountains and the young volcanic cascades. The region’s diversity provides a unique mix of plants and wildlife, from cacti to old-growth fir forests, from desert snakes to salamanders. This monument was expanded to approximately 48,000 acres seven years before his death.
Currently 114,000 acres, the monument is more remote and less visited than other federal lands, but is popular for fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing, and snowmobiling.
Pilot Rock rises into the clouds on July 6, 2000 at Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument near Lincoln, Oregon. (AP Photo/Jeff Bernard, File)
Most of the monument is located in Oregon, but approximately 5,000 acres are located in California, adjacent to that state’s Horseshoe Ranch Wildlife Refuge.
The petition opposing the monument expansion was filed by the American Forest Resources Council, an industry group representing logging companies, as well as a coalition of Oregon states and timber supply company Murphy Company.
The Chronicle reported that the Antiquities Act argued that it could not trump federal regulations to preserve timber harvests on railroad holdings in Oregon and California, known as O&C lands. The federal land was initially earmarked for the construction of a railroad between San Francisco and Portland, but was later returned to the government with conditions.
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The millions of board feet of timber that could be harvested from the site were a problem for logging companies that received the monument designation. The county of O&C Lands would lose some of its revenue from timber sales.
President Travis Joseph said, “This historic opportunity for the Supreme Court to balance growing government overreach on federal lands through the Antiquities Act and provide legal clarity for forests, communities, and the people who manage them.” It’s a shame that we didn’t take advantage of this opportunity.” he said in a statement from the U.S. Forest Resources Council.
The challenge had previously been rejected in two separate appellate court decisions.
