Think about this: those giant sequoias (estimated at being between 2,000 - 3,500 years old) were growing along the California coast at the same time that the ancient Greeks were building their empire. They have survived fires, earthquakes, the development of America (and especially, California), droughts, pestilence and all manner of natural disasters. But they may not survive the Trump administration.
Environmentalists and the outdoor recreation industry aren’t standing for President Donald Trump’s new executive order that threatens to rescind, shrink or resize dozens of recent national monument designations, including seven in California.
Trump’s new executive order requires Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review national monument designations that are over 100,000 acres and created under Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Trump argues that some national monument designations may “create barriers to achieving energy independence.”
The seven national monument designations in California are the aforementioned Giant Sequoia, Berryessa Snow Mountain, Carrizo Plain (Ground Zero of the "superbloom" California has experienced this spring), Sand to Snow (a favorite hiking area when I was a kid), San Gabriel Mountains (home of Mount Wilson Observatory, which Edwin Hubble used extensively), Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains and Mojave Trails. Lest you think that Trump is being particularly punitive towards California, since it went so heavily for Clinton in the Electoral College, a portion of the Grand Canyon in Arizona is also in danger.
Sadly, there's no consideration to putting in solar farms, which could be a boon in California's sunny climate, especially in the San Jacinto mountains or Mojave Desert. No, no, no, silly liberal. No, Trump wants to remove their national monument status for oil and gas exploration. All those beautiful and bio-diverse habitats destroyed for oil and gas drilling.
Go ahead and tell me there's not a dime's bit of difference between Trump and Hillary, I dare you.
