Earth Day Expansions?
Two Western monuments might be getting bigger. Plus, National Park Week kicks off, Wifi in campgrounds, summit pose voting update, blooms all over, and Happy Poem in your Pocket Day!
A Monumental Expansion?
According to an article in The Washington Post, President Joe Biden will be expanding the boundaries of two national monuments in California sometime in the near future—Berryessa Snow Mountain and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monuments.
Both national monuments have had bipartisan legislation with popular local support to expand for many years, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, Congress can’t even pay its bills on time these days so not much has happened.
I feel like I’ve been writing about this legislation for years (and I have!), but if President Biden uses the authority of the Antiquites Act, he can just bypass the stalled legislative branch and do it via proclamation.
Now, there are still a lot of unknowns about this. A similar rumor on national monument announcements in Nevada and eastern California last year ended up being several months early, so while some people are guessing Biden may proclaim these expansions during a California visit on Earth Day, I won’t be holding my breath.
We also don’t know exactly what’s going to be in the supposed expansion proclamations, but we can expect them to be pretty close to the legislation that’s been sitting in Congress. In the case of the San Gabriel Mountains, the most conservative option would be to just fold all of the Angeles National Forest that’s in the San Gabriel Mountain Range into the monument instead of the weird cut-outs of the most popular areas that never really made any sense in the first place. A more aggressive proclamation would include some of the foothills and river basins as part of a National Recreation Area, which has also been proposed several times via legislation.
I am happy (and proud) to be part of the board of Nature For All, which has been extremely active in leading and coalition-building on this effort. And while I trust removing a strange layer of delineated bureaucracy will help with management of the monument, I do also think there needs to be more pressure on politicians to make sure these expanded monument get the funding they need to operate at the higher level of service the public expects from national monuments. If they can’t deliver, we should also consider calling in some help or handing them over to an agency like the National Park Service that has a good track record of running a complex urban National Recreation Area nearby.
RELATED:
Want to know a bit more about the Antiquities Act? Here’s a primer I wrote back when another President was trying to just do whatever the hell he wanted with it. Spoiler: he couldn’t.
Oh also, Earth Day is coming up. If you’re going to read something about Earth Day, you should read this.
Your Parks
Your Places
It’s National Park Week!
Kicking off this Saturday, the 2024 edition of National Park Week rolls out across the country. If you’re new to this, it means that all entry fees are waived on April 20th, and the Park Service will be highlighting different themes across the system for each day, including Volunteers (sign up to pitch in!), Junior Ranger Day, Arts in Parks, and lots more. It’s a great excuse to visit a park you may not have been to before, or just to learn about some new ones for your next trip.
And just in case nobody’s told you this yet, there is no upper age limit to becoming a Junior Ranger.
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Most Campers Want WiFi
A new study on camping trends by the website Campspot dug into some current and upcoming camping trends for the summer. First, there’s something called “calm camping” that’s being branded, which is basically that most people who want to camp somewhere are looking to calm down and take a break from their routines. Sounds pretty good. Later on, we find that 64% of the survey respondents can only feel relaxed when they have WiFi and cellular service. In fact, only 9% of respondents said they preferred to go completely offline when camping.
Although I’m sure this sounds absolutely wild to you (as it does to me), a few years back I did an event with KOA where they shared similar statistics. Which I guess is good news for those of us who are willing to hike a few extra miles to get to the quiet campsites, right?
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
Return of the Rufous
If you’re in the Northwest, you may have started to notice the return of some red-tinged tiny dive-bombers recently. It’s the glorious return of the Rufous hummingbirds, which are in the process of heading toward southern Alaska after wintering in southern Mexico—one of the longest migratory flights of any bird, and especially more impressive when you consider how tiny these things are, around 3 inches long! They weigh about the same as a penny!
You may also see the more common (these days) Anna’s hummingbirds, which have a more purplish hue than the Rufous’s rusty mane. Interestingly, Anna’s used to be an uncommon species in the Northwest, but because humans have planted so many flowers in their landscaping and put out bird-feeders for them, they can now pretty much live year-round wherever humans do along the west coast up to British Columbia and as far east as Texas, where they used to just hang around in Mexico and Southern California. Way to go, hummingbirds!
Leafing Out
Plants!
Death Valley Lives!
The Washington Post has a very lovely piece on the current bloom (you know my feelings about ‘super bloom’) in Death Valley National Park, one of my favorite places ever. If you haven’t experienced a desert bloom, they’re really something—of course deserts have life year-round, and I actually love the fact that most of the time it takes a bit of time and patience to notice it, but you can’t argue with these bombastic, showy displays, you know? Anyway, there’s a nice video in here and lots of great pics. Have you been out yet? Send us some of your photos!
Antelope Valley Blooming, Too
The blooms keep coming! This time from the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, where the rains have brought enough flowers to life that the color carpet is visible from space—it’s just not the park’s namesake California poppies. Instead, the park in the western corner of the Mojave Desert is instead covered with California goldfields, Owl’s clover, and Creamcups. Although they sometimes grow like weeds, California poppies are notoriously finnicky flowers, and the late-season rain might have been too much for the state bloom. It’s all good, though. Remember—every bloom is super!
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
Two more things, this time, I guess! Last week, I put some new potential summit photos to the ballot. Right now, one option is juuuuuust squeaking ahead. Once the free subscribers get access in a few more days, I’ll start taking that pose on the trail.
If you’re reading this on the day it’s published, first, thank you for being a paid subscriber. I really, really appreciate it! Also, Happy Poem in your Pocket Day!
Part of National Poetry Month, Poem in your Pocket Day is part of the push to just let more people get to know poets and poetry in general. A few years ago, I rediscovered my love for this kind of writing, and I am a firm believer that there is really a poet for everyone out there—even for people who think they don’t like poetry or think it’s too intimidating or who’s only exposure was incomprehensible Olde English poems in high school.
The Academy of American Poets has a great PDF of short poems from a wide range of writers, and that’s a fun place to start.
I’ve been revisiting Billy Collins a lot lately. He’s one of my favorite poets and his poem What I Learned Today will be familiar to anyone who’s ever gone down a Wikipedia Hole.
Until next time,
Happy Trails.
