President Biden expands Berryessa Snow Mountain monument in California to protect Molok Luyuk ridge
President Joe Biden will expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Yolo County, a move that aims to safeguard nearly 134,000 acres including a ridgeline known as Molok Luyuk, which holds significance for local Native tribes.
Formerly known as Walker Ridge, the earthen backbone rising east of Clear Lake boasts unique geology and botanic life. The Biden administration said Thursday that the expansion underscores the president’s commitment to locally driven conservation.
“Locally led conservation efforts are at the heart of what we are advancing in the Biden-Harris administration,” said Secretary Deb Haaland in the statement. “Molok Luyuk is sacred to the Tribes who have long advocated for its protection, and thanks to President Biden’s leadership, it will now be protected for future generations.”
Biden also announced Thursday that his administration will expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument near Los Angeles, adding 105,919 acres of U.S. Forest Service lands to the south and west of the current monument.
The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument includes nearly 331,000 acres of protected land in parts of Napa, Yolo, Solano, Lake, Colusa, Glenn and Mendocino counties.
It was established by then-president Barack Obama in 2015 to protect the region’s biodiversity including tule elk, relic prairies and riparian habitat.
Both monuments were created by former President Barack Obama under the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law that authorizes the president to protect lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans.
Not long after the Berryessa monument was established, energy companies unsuccessfully sought to develop wind turbine projects on the adjacent ridge. Since that campaign, California conservationists and scientists banded with the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation to push for its permanent protection.
Biden’s decision to expand it and require the land to be co-managed by the Yocha Dehe follows two failed attempts at passing legislation that would have done so by Senators Alex Padilla and the late Dianne Feinstein.
“We are so grateful to President Biden for protecting Molok Luyuk by expanding Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument,” said Sandra Schubert, executive director of Tuleyome, a local conservation organization. “Molok Luyuk is a gem of rich cultural heritage and history, diverse wildlife and rare plants, stunning natural beauty, and accessible recreational activities.”
Yocha Dehe leaders chose the name Molok Luyuk, meaning Condor Ridge in the tribe’s Patwin language. Half a century ago, they said, the ridge was a corridor for California condors, the large native vultures slowly coming back from extinction.
The ridge lies along the Coast Range Fault, an ancient boundary between the upper North American plate and the descending lower plate. Geological activity formed outcroppings of ancient oceanic crust called serpentine soils, which lend the region its uniqueness.
The abundance of serpentinite, California’s state rock, on Molok Luyuk creates an ecological hostility that has preserved one of California’s few remaining native plant ecosystems, including the rare adobe lily, Hoover’s lomatium and grey pines.
From the ridge’s peak, visitors can catch views of Mount Lassen, Mount Shasta, the Trinity Alps, the Snow Mountain Wilderness and Mount Diablo. That’s not to mention fields of wildflowers in the adjacent Bear Valley and breathtaking scenes of nearby Cache Creek.
But conservationists say that the ridge has been a victim of underinvestment, and hope that monument status will lead to better accessibility for members of the public to appreciate it – from trails and handicapped parking to interpretive signs.
In a statement, Yocha Dehe tribal chairman Anthony Roberts thanked the president for protecting “an area steeped in thousands of years of rich history and profound meaning to the Patwin people,” he said. “We look forward to the day when condors fly over Molok Luyuk once again.”