The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, a remote expanse of wilderness along the California-Oregon border, will not lose any of its acreage after the US Supreme Court this week declined to take up two challenges to its expansion.
According to the Oregonian, logging interests and several counties in Oregon had asked the high court to strike down a 2017 addition to the monument. Their lawsuit claimed President Barack Obama improperly made the designation because Congress had previously set aside the land for timber harvests. By gaining monument status, the area won special protections including a prohibition on logging.
The challenges to the expansion raised the additional and broader question of whether the president's authority to create national monuments unilaterally under the Antiquities Act should be restricted. Critics of the 1906 law, who have commonly opposed bids for new designations, have argued it gives too much power to the executive branch. The Supreme Court decided not to address the issue.
The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument was created in 2000 to protect what is considered an ecologically valuable juncture of the ancient Siskiyou Mountains and the younger volcanic Cascades. The area, because of its diversity, contains a unique mix of plants and wildlife, from cactus to old-growth fir forests and desert snakes to salamanders. The monument was expanded by about 48,000 acres seven years ago.
The now 114,000-acre monument, while remote and less visited than other federal lands, is popular for fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing and snowmobiling. While most of the monument is in Oregon, about 5,000 acres reside in California.
The petitions against the monument's expansion were filed by the American Forest Resource Council, a trade group representing logging companies, alongside a coalition of Oregon counties and the Murphy Company, a timber supplier. The challenges were previously denied in two separate appellate court rulings.
