Using his authority under the Antiquities Act, the president created a protected area spanning roughly 704,000 acres in central Nevada’s Basin and Range, as well as smaller ones in California’s Berryessa Snow Mountain and Texas’ Waco Mammoth. [...]
Broadly supported by environmentalists, [Basin and Range] is also home to a major earthen sculpture, “City” which the artist Michael Heizer has worked to create over nearly half a century.
— washingtonpost.com
All in all, these new monuments cover more land than the state of Rhode Island, adding significant mileage to Obama's public lands legacy. The Basin and Range (Nevada), Berryessa Snow Mountain (California) and Waco Mammoth (Texas) monuments cover lands that are either completely or mostly undeveloped, and their now-protected status will prohibit mining and energy leasing.
The designation also encompasses Michael Heizer's "City", the massive land-art project now in the final stage of its creation, located in Garden Valley, Nevada. "City" was an integral part of a public preservation campaign aimed at getting President Obama to act on the area. Heizer will reportedly attend the White House ceremony when the President will sign the monument proclamations.
Also now off the table are talks of a possible rail corridor through the Basin and Range area, chiefly for shipping nuclear waste to the nearby Yucca Mountain repository.
For more on the history of Heizer's "City":
8 Comments
first we got gay marriage
then the gehry eisenhower memorial got an approval
now this.
the alien nihilists are winning.
damn you alien nihilists
This is not correct. City is adjacent to the national monument, not within it. The Los Angeles Times has reported, “The L.A. museum plans to donate the land to the federal government when the sculpture is completed, within five years.” However, whether it becomes a part of the national monument is uncertain. Neither national monuments or the Antiquities Act are intended to protect modern works of people.
@DennisC.Myers, "City" is not itself being called a national monument, but is indeed now surrounded by one (and therefore, protected to a degree). That same LA Times piece states:
"The monument designation protects a massive 40-years-in-the-making art project called "City" by Michael Heizer, the artist who created LACMA's levitated mass."
And according to another LA Times piece, "City" is indeed surrounded by the new national monument:
"The 704,000 acres of central Nevada surrounding artist Michael Heizer's longtime artwork-in-progress, “City,” was declared a national monument in a White House ceremony, a move that will protect the majestic mountain-ringed desert as well as the massive sculpture."
Dress it up as you will, but the headline is incorrect. City is not, as the headline states, "part of a national monument".
what's your beef with this Dennis? only two comments in the forum just to say the header is inaccurate?
"POTUS ensures destruction of hated modern art with encroaching 1 million acre national monument; J Shubow rejoices"
fixed
In a massive expansion of his lands legacy, Obama created three new national monuments Friday in Nevada, California and Texas.
Using his authority under the Antiquities Act, the president created a protected area spanning roughly 704,000 acres in central Nevada’s Basin and Range, as well as smaller ones in California’s Berryessa Snow Mountain and Texas’ Waco Mammoth.
This is a great thing...I like these rare occasions when Obama acts like a liberal...
As for 'city'....it is indirectly protected...that's great... but I am more happy about the 700k acres of natural lands being protected from destruction...
Great move by POTUS, although I would like to hear from SOTH and SCOTUS as well. I know RMITHOR usually says 'WTF?' to these decisions which must make POTUS LOL and say TTYN to those dudes. Do you think FLOTUS had much influence on this? And what about VPOTUS? We don't hear from that guy enough! OK, CYA!
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