High Bridge Trail at Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument

Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is a national monument of the United States comprising of the

California Coast Ranges The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. ...

in Napa, Yolo, Solano,

Lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

, Colusa, Glenn and Mendocino counties in

northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

.Secretaries Vilsack and Jewell Laud President Obama's Designation of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
(press release), United States Department of the Interior (July 10, 2015). Cache Creek Wilderness is located within the monument.

Creation

The national monument was created by a proclamation issued on July 10, 2015 by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

under the

Antiquities Act The Antiquities Act of 1906 (, , ), is an act that was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by presidential pro ...

. Obama also signed proclamations creating two other national monuments (the

Basin and Range National Monument Basin and Range National Monument is a national monument of the United States spanning approximately of remote, undeveloped mountains and valleys in Lincoln and Nye counties in southeastern Nevada.

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

and the

Waco Mammoth National Monument The Waco Mammoth National Monument is a paleontological site and museum in Waco, Texas, United States where fossils of 24 Columbian mammoths (''Mammuthus columbi'') and other mammals from the Pleistocene Epoch have been uncovered. The site is th ...

central Texas Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas surrounding Austin and roughly bordered by San Saba to Bryan and San Marcos to Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part of the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a ...

) the same day. The monument will be jointly managed by the

Mendocino National Forest The Mendocino National Forest is located in the Coastal Mountain Range in northwestern California and comprises 913,306 acres (3,696 km2). It is the only national forest in the state of California without a major paved road entering it ...

of the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

and the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's ...

The proclamation of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument came after a campaign for the area's designation, supported by a coalition of counties and cities in the region (many of which passed resolutions of support), the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legislatu ...

, the Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians, state and local political leaders, local newspaper editorial boards, conservationist and environmental organizations, recreation groups, local business owners and landowners.

Description

The monument extends approximately from Mendocino County to mountains on either side of

Lake Berryessa Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. This reservoir in the Vaca Mountains was formed following the construction of the Monticello Dam on Putah Creek in the 1950s. Since the early 1960s, this reservoir has provided wate ...

in Yolo and Napa counties. The monument includes the

Snow Mountain There are various mountains called Snow Mountain in the United States: See also * Snow Mountain Wilderness, California * Mount Snow, Vermont, United States * Snow Peak (disambiguation) * Ice Mountain (disam ...

, Cache Creek and the Cedar Roughs

Wilderness areas Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

. The monument, along with the lake, take their name from the Berryessa family of California, a historically prominent

Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sin ...

family of the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. Lake Berryessa itself was not included within the monument's boundaries due to critics' concerns over the possibility that the use of motorized boats, watercraft and Jet Skis could be restricted at some point in the future.

Ecology

Wildlife in the region includes

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

tule elk The tule elk (''Cervus canadensis nannodes'') is a subspecies of elk found only in California, ranging from the grasslands and marshlands of the Central Valley to the grassy hills on the coast. The subspecies name derives from the tule (), a ...

black-tailed deer Two forms of black-tailed deer or blacktail deer that occupy coastal woodlands in the Pacific Northwest of North America are subspecies of the mule deer (''Odocoileus hemionus''). They have sometimes been treated as a species, but virtually all r ...

northern spotted owl The northern spotted owl (''Strix occidentalis caurina'') is one of three spotted owl subspecies. A western North American bird in the family Strigidae, genus '' Strix'', it is a medium-sized dark brown owl native to the Pacific Northwest. An ...

marten A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on ...

fisher Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

, California Coastal chinook salmon, and Northern California steelhead.Peter Fimrite
President Obama to protect huge Berryessa wildland
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (July 10, 2015). The area is also home to some of the world's rare plants, described as "particularly delicate serpentine plants clinging to otherwise barren and rocky mountainsides."Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
U.S. Forest Service . accessed July 14, 2015. The high-elevation Snow Mountain area is one of the most

biologically diverse Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

regions in California.

Native American history

The area has cultural and historical, as well as ecological, significance. The region has been inhabited by linguistically diverse Native American tribes for 11,000 years — including the Yuki,

Nomlaki The Nomlaki (also Noamlakee, Central Wintu, Nomelaki) are a Wintun people native to the area of the Sacramento Valley, extending westward to the Coast Range in Northern California. Today some Nomlaki people are enrolled in the federally recogni ...

Patwin The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a band of Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin comprise the southern branch of the Wintun group, native inhabitants of California since approximately 500 AD. The Patw ...

Pomo The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small ...

Huchnom The Yuki (also known as Yukiah) are an indigenous people of California, whose traditional territory is around Round Valley, Mendocino County. Today they are enrolled members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation. Befor ...

Wappo The Wappo ( endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the ...

Lake Miwok The Lake Miwok are a branch of the Miwok, a Native American people of Northern California. The Lake Miwok lived in the Clear Lake basin of what is now called Lake County. Culture The Lake Miwok spoke their own Lake language in the Utian li ...

and Wintum indigenous peoples.

References

External links

U.S. Forest Service: official Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument website BLM: official Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument websiteTuleyome: non-profit conservation organization for Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
{{authority control National Monuments in California Bureau of Land Management National Monuments United States Forest Service National Monuments California Coast Ranges Mendocino National Forest Bureau of Land Management areas in California Parks in Glenn County, California Parks in Lake County, California Parks in Mendocino County, California Parks in Napa County, California Parks in Solano County, California Protected areas of Colusa County, California Protected areas of Yolo County, California National Monuments designated by Barack Obama Protected areas established in 2015 2015 establishments in California