Natural History Wanderings

In California the Mercury News reports

In one of his final conservation acts before leaving the White House next week, President Obama on Thursday granted national monument status to Coast Dairies, a 5,785-acre scenic coastal expanse between Santa Cruz and Davenport that stretches for six miles along Highway 1 and features rolling hills, redwood forests and breathtaking ocean views.

Obama added Coast Dairies and five other pieces of land to the existing California Coastal National Monument, an area set up 17 years ago by President Bill Clinton to protect offshore rocks and islands.

via Obama names Santa Cruz coast property as national monument

Washington Post article on all five new National Monuments  Obama names five new national monuments, including Southern civil rights sites – The Washington Post