National Monument(s) Under Threat
Saturday, 30 Sep 2017. 6pm.
The walk back from Rainbow Falls and Lower Falls was uphill most of the way. Not the most fun thing to do, even when in beauty we walk. We helped pass the time by talking about what we'd read on one of the placards in the park. Devils Postpile was once in danger of being given over to mining interests instead of being protected as a national monument.
In 1910 managed by the US Forest Service. Mining interests petitioned the federal government to give them rights to mine for gold. As part of their petition they proposed to blast the basalt columns to dam the river to create hydro power to strip mine the hills. Yes, they literally aimed to destroy the best things about the area, as if the plan was hatched by Dr. Evil!
It took dedicated efforts on the part of Forest Service engineer Walter Hubert, University of California professor Joseph LeConte, and Sierra Club president William Colby to preserve this geologic wonder. Their efforts were aided in no small part by... photography. As early as 1875 naturalists took photos of the area from practically the same vantage I did today:
This scene at Devils Postpile hasn't changed since it was first photographed in 1875
Photography was crucially important to the creation of parks and other preserved areas. It allowed lawmakers 2,500 miles away in Washington, D.C. to see the amazing natural beauty of the U.S. West and not just dismiss it as "a wall of oddly shaped rocks suitable to be blasted for a dam" or somesuch.
The conservationists with the help of photographers prevailed. President William Howard Taft proclaimed Devils Postpile a National Monument in 1911, protecting it from things such as blasting and mining. The power to create national monuments by presidential proclamation was granted by the Antiquities Act of 1906, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt.
This lesson is eerily prescient to the modern day, more than 100 years later. Devils Postpile may not be in jeopardy in 2017 but other national monuments are. Mining interests are lobbying the federal government to dissolve various monuments' protective designations. President Donald Trump and senior leaders in his administration have indicated they are open to doing so. Or at least they may try. It will be a question for the Supreme Court whether the Antiquities Act allows the president to un-create a national monument.
The walk back from Rainbow Falls and Lower Falls was uphill most of the way. Not the most fun thing to do, even when in beauty we walk. We helped pass the time by talking about what we'd read on one of the placards in the park. Devils Postpile was once in danger of being given over to mining interests instead of being protected as a national monument.
In 1910 managed by the US Forest Service. Mining interests petitioned the federal government to give them rights to mine for gold. As part of their petition they proposed to blast the basalt columns to dam the river to create hydro power to strip mine the hills. Yes, they literally aimed to destroy the best things about the area, as if the plan was hatched by Dr. Evil!
It took dedicated efforts on the part of Forest Service engineer Walter Hubert, University of California professor Joseph LeConte, and Sierra Club president William Colby to preserve this geologic wonder. Their efforts were aided in no small part by... photography. As early as 1875 naturalists took photos of the area from practically the same vantage I did today:
This scene at Devils Postpile hasn't changed since it was first photographed in 1875
Photography was crucially important to the creation of parks and other preserved areas. It allowed lawmakers 2,500 miles away in Washington, D.C. to see the amazing natural beauty of the U.S. West and not just dismiss it as "a wall of oddly shaped rocks suitable to be blasted for a dam" or somesuch.
The conservationists with the help of photographers prevailed. President William Howard Taft proclaimed Devils Postpile a National Monument in 1911, protecting it from things such as blasting and mining. The power to create national monuments by presidential proclamation was granted by the Antiquities Act of 1906, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt.
This lesson is eerily prescient to the modern day, more than 100 years later. Devils Postpile may not be in jeopardy in 2017 but other national monuments are. Mining interests are lobbying the federal government to dissolve various monuments' protective designations. President Donald Trump and senior leaders in his administration have indicated they are open to doing so. Or at least they may try. It will be a question for the Supreme Court whether the Antiquities Act allows the president to un-create a national monument.