In 2017, the Interior Department launched a review of more than two dozen national monuments across the country to determine whether to reduce the size of these protected areas or eliminate their protections entirely. The Carrizo Plain National Monument—a 200,000-acre expanse of grasslands and stark ridges adjacent to the Los Padres National Forest in San Luis Obispo County—was listed as one of the monuments on the chopping block.
ForestWatch immediately mobilized to defend this iconic landscape. We built a coalition of nearly two hundred local businesses, museums, elected officials, community leaders, scientists, chambers of commerce, archaeological societies, trail groups, and Native American tribes to speak with a unified voice for the protection of this unique landscape. We launched a website and gathered and hand-delivered more than three thousand letters to the Interior Department’s headquarters in Washington DC.
As a result of our efforts, the Carrizo Plain’s protected status remains untouched.
