Silver anniversary for Nat’l Monuments postponed amid federal shutdown
Haleemon Anderson
A celebration in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monuments is being postponed, it was announced today.
“The ‘Monument in Our Back Yard’ is turning 25, but for now the party will have to wait,” Friends of the Desert Mountains said in a statement, Friday.
The celebration, originally set for October 23, will be rescheduled amid the federal government’s shutdown, now approaching day 18.
The kick off celebration, including a time capsule installation at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center on Highway 74, is being postponed to a later date to be determined.
Friends’ Executive Director Tammy Martin said the Visitor Center is closed to the public and staff at the Bureau of Land Management and USDA Forest Service would not have been able to participate due to the shutdown.
“We will celebrate this wonderful national treasure when the time is right,” said Martin.
Please check DesertMountains.org for Friends’ event updates during the shutdown.
Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument is one of the first National Monuments designated under the National Conservation Lands status. The natural public lands monument was established by an Act of Congress on October 24, 2000, “in order to preserve the nationally significant biological, cultural, recreational, geological, educational, and scientific values found in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains” (Public Law 106-351).
Jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the USDA Forest Service (Forest Service), and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (ACBCI), the Monument’s boundary encompasses about 280,000 acres, including public lands within the BLM’s California Desert Conservation Area and the San Jacinto Ranger District of the San Bernardino National Forest. Establishment of the Monument reflected the vision of local citizens and national leaders to ensure this special landscape is sustained and protected in perpetuity.