Take Action: Do Not Let Trump Attack Our National Monuments and the California Coast

Make your voice heard by submitting your comments to the Department of the Interior and by calling your Senators to let them know that:

• We LOVE our national monuments and public lands.
• Attacking our national monuments is an attack on our core American values and we reject any proposals to strip their special status.
• We support the presidential use of the Antiquities Act to protect our unique natural, historic and cultural resources.
• We will not stand for rolling back protections of our marine sanctuaries or allowing offshore oil and gas drilling, which risks disastrous oil spills and will hasten climate change.

How to Submit Comments

Online: Comments may be submitted online to the Department of the Interior after May 12, 2017 at https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=DOI-2017-0002-0001. For background info click here.

Mail: Monument Review, MS-1530, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240

Contact Your Senators: Find your Senators contact information here.

• Dianne Feinstein – (202) 224-3841
  331 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
  www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
• Kamala Harris – (202) 224-3553
  112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510

Letter from our Executive Director, May 12, 2017

I’m calling on you to speak out against President Trump’s threats to rescind 27 national monuments and rollback protections for our magnificent California coast. Based on two recent executive orders, Trump is questioning the legitimacy of national monuments created since 1996, seeking to lift the ban on offshore oil and gas extraction, and reconsidering protections for any National Marine Sanctuary established in the last 10 years. Our elected officials must hear from us loud and clear that our protected public lands and a clean California coastline are precious treasures for all Americans that warrant increased support, not less.

Although our California Coastal National Monument (which includes the newest Cotoni-Coast Dairies addition) is not on the initial target list of vulnerable national monuments, it may be added later and the Antiquities Act that was used to create it is being directly called into question. We must stand up for the California Coastal National Monument and the Antiquities Act – which is a bedrock environmental tool that has been used by almost every president to protect our country’s unique natural, historic and cultural resources worthy of permanent federal protection and public enjoyment. And the watersheds of Cotoni-Coast Dairies flow right into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Adjacent marine sanctuaries just to the north are at risk of being repealed and opened to offshore oil and gas drilling, exposing them to disastrous oil spills and hastening climate change.

Today begins the online public comment period for national monuments and we need your voice to be heard! Please visit our website for information on how to submit your feedback to the Secretary of the Interior and for talking points you can use. We cannot stand idly by when these actions present a clear and present danger to our public lands and waters, threatening to quickly undo decades of work to protect and restore the California coast.

Sincerely,
Sara Barth

Additional Resources

• Rep. Anna Eshoo and Sara Barth: Standing up for our Irreplaceable Coast (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• Interior Department Releases List of Monuments Under Review, Announces First-Ever Formal Public Comment Period for Antiquities Act Monuments
• Conservation Lands Foundation Statement on So-Called Review of National Monuments
• Which national monuments in California threatened by Trump order? (Mercury News)
• Presidential Executive Order Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy
• With eye toward offshore oil drilling, President Trump seeks review of Pacific marine sanctuaries (Mercury News)
• Trump Is Expected to Sign Orders That Could Expand Access to Fossil Fuels (New York Times)

Learn more about Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument.