Rep. Paul Cook Sells Out Constituents - and Nation - Instructs DOI to eliminate and reduce national
Once again, Rep. Paul Cook has blatantly ignored not only the best long term interests of his constituents in California's 8th District, but also their thoughts and opinions on their public lands.
The cowardly former Marine colonel, who constantly touts his connection with the Marine Corps, held no public town halls or meetings to gather input on President Trump's questionable executive order to "review" and possibly eliminate or reduce national monuments created by previous presidents. Instead, he joined with a roster of some of the worst in Congress to support the elimination of a number of national monuments, and the reduction of others, without releasing so much as a press release about his position.
One of the national monuments Cook has recommended for reduction is in his own congressional district - Mojave Trails National Monument. The new national monument, designated in 2016 by President Obama, creates a travel and tourism destination badly needed in that part of the 8th District, while helping preserve the longest undeveloped stretch of Route 66, designated as one of "15 Must-See Endangered Cultural Treasures" by Smithsonian Magazine.
Mojave Trails also connects and preserves the lands of, and surrounding, Amboy Crater, the 550 million year-old trilobite fossil beds of the Marble Mountains, Sleeping Beauty Valley, the last intact valley representing the West Mojave plant ecosystem, the perennial Mojave River flow in Afton Canyon, and the Cady Mountains, home to bighorn sheep. The national monument preserves wildlife and recreational corridors connecting two national parks and more than a dozen wilderness areas.
The lands within Mojave Trails National Monument also contain invaluable archaeological and cultural sites, including Native American sacred sites, trails, and trade routes, as well as historic sites and routes in American history that represent the development of the railroad, homesteading, World War II training, and westward migration, especially during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. "We recommend the reduction of the size of Mojave Trails National Monument so that the monument is "confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected," noted the letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke that Cook signed.
The letter footnotes reference to a news story on the threat to our local national monuments, as if Cook and the other congressional signers believed that a footnote validates whatever paragraph it is attached to, despite the fact the news story footnoted does not support the intended conclusion of the letter. Rather, the footnoting appears to be the result of an amateurish attempt by those who drafted the letter to validate their conclusions using footnotes they hope no one will check, while pulling a quote with virtually no factual material about the national monument designation, from the story as if that legitimizes their recommendation to reduce the size of the national monument.
“It is outrageous that Rep. Cook would go behind the backs of his constituents to argue that one of our Mojave Monuments be diminished," said Danielle Segura, executive director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust. "The Mojave Desert Land Trust has invested in this landscape for over a decade, and worked alongside many diverse local groups, to create this monument. Rep. Cook couldn’t even wait until the public had commented before trying to strip protections on land important to the local community.”
The letter Cook signed goes on to claim that "Unfortunately, President Obama ignored bipartisan and bicameral efforts that coordinated with local stakeholders from San Bernardino County and chose to implement a top-down mandate." We have covered highly publicized, well attended public forums on the proposed national monuments for the 8th District, and found there was overwhelming support for their establishment. Cook evidently has forgotten that the national monuments in question were included in Senator Dianne Feinstein's latest desert legislation, the California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act - legislation he attempted to subvert with his own, and that his own staff were present for some of this public process where his proposed legislation was not well received. Cook's legislation, the California Minerals, Off-Road Recreation, and (as an afterthought) Conservation Act did not include the Mojave Trails National Monument.
On October 13, 2015, Senator Feinstein, Rep. Cook’s chief of staff, the Department of the Interior, and Department of Agriculture, participated with other regional and local elected officials in a public meeting to gauge support for and hear concerns regarding the three proposed California Desert National Monuments – Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountains. Written and verbal comments were collected at the meeting, where attendance was estimated to be over 800 members of the general public. We were there covering this well publicized meeting and can note that any attempt to mislabel the process of the establishment of these national monuments as lacking in public input, are patently false, and purposefully deceptive.
The Department of the Interior opened a public comment process, to hear from local communities about the national monuments under review by President Trump's executive order. Over 2.5 million public comments were submitted nationally. The Mojave Desert Land Trust alone collected over 1,250 comments focused specifically on the importance of the monuments in the Mojave. Of the comments collected nationally, analysis has found 98 percent of submitted comments were in support of our national monuments. Zinke's "review" of the national monuments in question has met with mixed reviews of its own as he has purposefully avoided meeting with tribal representatives and members of the public whose views do not appear to meet his foregone conclusions about particular national monuments.
The public comment period closed July 10. Rep. Cook sent his letter in support of reducing Mojave Trails on June 30.
“Rep. Cook isn’t even pretending to listen to his constituents about the monuments," said naturalist and Sun Runner contributor, Pat Flanagan. "We are disappointed that he chose to speak out against this designation we fought over 10 years for, we ask that Rep. Cook get out of his office and pay more attention - this designation will help to keep our desert whole and our economy flourishing."
Cook's letter is misleading and wholly exclusive of input from the vast majority of his own constituents. It is also misleading in its portrayal of national monuments as a whole.
"National monument designations more often than not severely impair energy development, water rights, wildfire prevention efforts, grazing rights and other vital land management activities," the letter noted - a broad simplistic over generalization that outlines the special interests Cook and his fellow signers appear to place over the rest of the public in importance when it comes to managing public lands. We won't even try to counter these questionable assertions at this time.
In addition to recommending the reduction in size of Mojave Trails National Monument, Cook and the other signers also recommended:
Reduction of Basin and Range National Monument
Elimination of Bears Ears National Monument
Elimination of Berryessa National Monument
Reduction of Carrizo Plain National Monument
Elimination of Cascade Siskiyou National Monument (both Clinton and Obama designations)
Reduction of Craters of the Moon National Monument
Reduction of Giant Sequoia National Monument
Reduction of Gold Butte National Monument
Elimination of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Elimination of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Elimination of Ironwood Forest National Monument
Elimination of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument
Reduction of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument
Reduction of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument
Reduction of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
Elimination of Sonoran Desert National Monument
Reduction of Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument
Elimination of Vermillion Cliffs National Monument
Elimination of Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument
Reduction of Pacific Remote Islands National Monument
Reduction of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument
Reduction of Rose Atoll Marine National Monument