After the Secretary of the Interior ended the review of the status of five national monuments, a Santa Barbara congressman asked that one in our region be added to the exemption list.
Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal sent a letter to Secretary Ryan Zinke asking him to end the review of the Carrizo Plain National Monument.
The status of 27 National Monuments has been under review as the result of an executive order by President Trump. The administration is looking at dropping protections for some of the monuments to allow the development of natural resources like oil and gas deposits. Zinke announced that five of the 27 monuments are no longer under review, keeping their protected status intact.
The more than 240,000 acre Carrizo Plain National Monument is northeast of Santa Maria, in San Luis Obispo and Kern counties.