Foundation News

In honor of the 100^th Anniversary of the National Park Service, on August 24, 2016, President Obama announced the designation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in northern Maine for an additional 87,500 acres of protected public land. The national monument encompasses the East Branch of the Penobscot River and part of the Maine Woods to permanently protect the incredible biodiversity, geology, and recreational opportunities of the area. The Obama administration cites climate resiliency as one of the reasons for the designation. Ensuring the landscape remains intact bolsters “the forest’s resilience against the impacts of climate change.” This news is the result of years of hard work by the Sierra Club and its partners to protect the Maine Woods as well as to make climate change a national priority.

At the start of President Obama’s second term, the Sierra Club set a goal to compel the President to protect six million acres as national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906 by the time he leaves office. With this announcement, the President has designated a total of 24 new sites and four million acres. We have a few more months to permanently protect the remaining two million acres on our list, including places surrounding the Greater Grand Canyon, the Bear’s Ears in Utah, and the Arctic Refuge. The Our Wild America Campaign, fiscally sponsored by the Sierra Club Foundation, is organizing Sierra Club staff, volunteers, and supporters to make sure we get there.

Two days after the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument announcement, President Obama announced the expansion of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, quadrupling its original size. At 583,000 square miles, the monument is nearly four times the size of California and the largest marine protected area in the world. The monument supports a reef ecosystem with more than 7,000 species, a quarter of which are endemic to Hawaii, and an area that is of great significance to Native Hawaiian culture.