Legislation introduced to make Berryessa-Snow Mountain into national monument

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation in the House and Senate on Thursday to designate the 360,100-acre Berryessa-Snow Mountain region - all federally owned land - as a national monument.

The move represents a slight shift for Thompson and Boxer, who tried in 2013 to get the sprawling area, which runs for 100 miles south-to-north through Napa, Lake, Mendocino, Solano and Yolo counties, placed in a national conservation area.

Neither of those bills came to a vote in either chamber, and now both the Senate and House are under Republican control.

Thompson said in an interview Thursday that he will “work with the leadership in the House” to advance the new bill, noting that he has succeeded in the past with the House Committee on Natural Resources, where his bill was sent.

Thompson helped secure passage of a bill that established permanent protection of 273,000 acres of publicly owned land in Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Lake and Napa counties in 2006, when former Rep. Richard Pombo, a conservative Republican from Tracy, chaired the committee.

The current chairman, Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, has a 4 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental nonprofit group that rates federal lawmakers on a zero to 100 scale based on their votes on key issues. Thompson has a 91 percent lifetime score.

At the same time, Thompson said he is working with the Interior Department on the possibility of getting President Barack Obama to declare the area a national monument.

At a public meeting in Napa in December, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said she would prefer to see the national monument designation come from Congress.

“That’s my preferred way,” Thompson said Thursday.

National monument status would achieve the same objectives as a national conservation area, he said previously.

Reps. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, are co-sponsoring the bill.

The Wilderness Society, a national conservation group, applauded Thompson’s latest effort to preserve the Berryessa-Snow Mountain region, describing the “sweeping oak-dotted hills, creeks and meadows” as “premier wildlife habitat that has rapidly disappeared in California.”

In a written statement, Thompson said protection of the region would “help boost tourism, grow the local economy, improve recreation opportunities and protect important species.”

Bald eagles, black bears and mountain lions roam the region, which also affords humans places for hiking, mountain biking, camping and whitewater rafting.

Hunting and fishing would continue to be allowed in the national monument, along with existing grazing and motorized vehicle trails, officials said.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@guykovner.