The Bill that Protects the Economy and the Condors!

08.10.2010

Photo Credit: Don Franco

The Pinnacles National Monument, located in Southern California just northeast of Los Padres National Forest, is looking for an upgrade in status. First established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, this wilderness area is a well-known nesting place for the endangered California Condor, the largest airborne bird in California with a wingspan of 9 feet or less. It is also a culturally significant land for some Native American tribes. Approximately 165,000 visitors a year come to see the condors and the beautiful landscape formed on an eroded volcano. However, this amount of visitors is not enough to keep the economy up to speed.

In order to revive the economy of the area and put the monument area under the nation’s strongest form of land protection, Senator Barbara Boxer has written up a bill that would not only increase the the size of the Monument from 16,000 to 19,000 acres, but most importantly give it the status of National Park. Boxer hopes the this elevated status would “draw even more visitors to this spectacular piece of California’s natural and cultural heritage.”

The Pinnacles National Monument is currently home to 26 California Condors. The first condor chick was born in March, but it had to be removed from the monument in May due to lead poisoning, which can be traced back to lead bullets found in the carcasses of animals that the condors feed on.

It is disheartening to see that people will not pay attention to the protection of culturally rich, environmentally diverse land and the human-caused lead poisoning of the first baby condor in modern times unless the economy is in trouble.