Last month, Rep. Salud Carbajal’s Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, H.R. 2199, had its first hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee. ForestWatch’s Director of Youth and Community Engagement, Graciela Cabello, was invited to testify in front of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands and delivered compelling testimony before the 44-member bipartisan panel.
A Santa Barbara native, Cabello focused on the importance of protected public lands for youth, low-income communities, as well as the cultural significance of protected land for Indigenous communities:
“My exposure to these wild places as a child was largely due to geographical access and low economic barriers. This is the case for many of the communities up and down the Central Coast….We are all future ancestors, and we have a historic opportunity to protect this special place for all people and leave a legacy for future generations. I strongly encourage the committee to support H.R. 2199.”
Cabello was one of only three leaders from the conservation and outdoor-recreation communities invited to testify for a trio of California bills including the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act and the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act. Each representative spoke in support of the bills in their own community.
The Central Coast Heritage Protection Act was reintroduced this past April by Rep. Salud Carbajal (CA-24) and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA). It seeks to designate nearly 250,000 acres of land within Los Padres National Forest and Carrizo Plain National Monument as protected wilderness areas, creates two scenic areas encompassing 34,882 acres, and safeguards 159 miles of wild and scenic rivers. The bill also creates a 400-mile long Condor National Recreation trail that will stretch from Los Angeles to Monterey County.
“Protecting our public lands and outdoor economy is especially important as the current administration continues to take action to open up public lands and national monuments to oil interests,” said Rep. Carbajal in the hearing. “As policymakers, we have a responsibility to protect these special places for future generations…We must push this measure across the finish line.”
ForestWatch and its conservation partners—under the umbrella of Central Coast Wild Heritage —have worked for years building support amongst diverse stakeholders to expand the network of protected wilderness lands within public lands throughout California’s central coast region. The bill is supported by nearly 500 Central Coast landowners, businesses, elected officials, farmers, ranchers, civic leaders, wineries, recreationalists, and outfitters. It will also help to sustain the ecological future of 468 species of wildlife and more than 1,200 plant species. You can learn more by visiting the Cental Coast Wild Heritage web page.
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