Inside the Three Newest U.S. National Monuments
New monuments declared in California, Nevada, and Texas safeguard tracts of wilderness, from mountains to mammoth bones.
Oak woodlands, rugged mountains, and mammoth bones are among the newest protected natural treasures in the United States, as President Barack Obama is expected to designate three new national monuments Friday.
The president has created more than a dozen new monuments on land and sea during his term, using his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The three new monuments combined total over one million acres, nearly doubling the public lands protected thus far by Obama. They join 117 existing national monuments, which have steadily been created by presidents over the past century. (Learn about controversies surrounding new monuments.)
Here are the newest national monuments:
These Northern California oak woodlands lie about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Bay
