Several Monterey County residents met President Barack Obama last week and had the opportunity to express the broad community support for the national monument proposal ranging from the Fort Ord Reuse Authority and business groups to veterans, recreational users and environmental interests.
From the Monterey Herald:
“[Henrietta] Stern said the proposal calls for designating about 14,500 acres of public land on the former military base as the Fort Ord Soldiers National Monument, which Obama … could recognize under the Antiquities Act of 1906. About half that acreage is already under federal Bureau of Land Management control, with the rest to be turned over to the bureau following completion of an Army-led military ordnance clean-up expected to be finished by 2019.”
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The monument would only protect the federally owned public land and become part of the National Conservation Lands, which includes a collection of the most ecologically, culturally and historically significant public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.