As a resident of Sierra National Forest, the movement to make our 1.4 million acres of land a National Monument deeply affects me. Not only is it my home, but it's also the backyard of thousands of local residents. Our connection to this land runs deep - it's intertwined with our daily lives and traditions. The idea of having restricted access to it is unfathomable and the consequences felt within our community immense.

The Sierra National Forest spans over 1.4 million acres and is home to abundant wildlife and natural resources that are not only relished by the locals but also contribute to their survival. The proposed change of making it a National Monument poses threats to the way of life for locals and disrupts the delicate balance of our ecosystem. Such change would limit the locals' access to areas they've been frequenting for years and could potentially restrict access to necessary resources.

In addition to this, we have ongoing land abuse and unattended campfires that pose a significant threat to the ecosystem. There isn't enough surveillance by forest rangers on park floors, and we fear that the monument status would only deprioritize this issue further. Instead of designating Sierra National Forest as a National Monument, efforts should be redirected to increase ranger presence in the forest to control these instances of land misuse.

We urge those who have the authority to help by redirecting their efforts - rather than making this land a national monument, increase forest ranger presence to protect the area from land abuse. Let's preserve our natural wonders for future generations while keeping them accessible for those who call it home. Please, sign this petition to halt the Sierra National National Forest becoming a national monument and enhance ranger presence to preserve and protect our sacred lands.

A brief story from the publisher

Just about 8 miles off of road 200 3 miles from Bass Lake sits a place in call home my back yard is over a million ackers of SNF where I spend most of my time enjoying the company of my children family and friends. I was introduced to the SNF 10 years ago thanks to my wife and here father and uncle. We made alot of good memories enjoying everything the SNF has to offer its visitors in its curent management state. To know that one person with an idea can take all of this away not only form my family but family's of future generations is absurd. My wife's grate grandfather founded Camp Sierra a small community just across from Big creek. The family has been enjoying it and the first cabin built there for generations. The current national monument movement that is trying to get past limit access to remote areas that people often go to and enjoy this will limit the enjoyment of the Sierra National Forest basically turning it into a national Wilderness with restrictions they cannot restrict certain roads due to current resources available to us such as some of our reservoirs in lakes in the area that supply and power to millions of Californians that also Supply millions and millions of gallons of water to millions and millions of California residents so limiting roads that they deem unnecessary for any travel other than horseback or walking cuts off that part of the forest to the people not allowing logging or thinning of forest increases fire risk when you thin out a forest and put gaps between possible fuels such as trees shrubs Duff that is on the ground that would be cleaned up during this thinning process you increase the risk of fire being able to jump from One Tree to another from one Bush to another we would end up with another Creek Fire and possibly more devastating than the creek fire was due to its lack of human traffic and human maintenance cattle is one of these necessary things to have as they help to eliminate fuels on the forest floor take it as a lawn mower or weed eater going through there and clearing out brush at very little cost to our Sierra National Forest and it's benefiting our Farmers that cannot graze their cattle in lower elevations due to extreme heat that dries out their food source there are thousands of people that rely on Sierra National Forest for homes income work resources this is all being put in Movement by one person one person that took a walk into our Sierra National Forest after the devastating Creek Fire and blamed it on human traffic the fire was created by human traffic the fire progressively increased in the Big Creek basin due to an overgrowth of fuels that allowed to Creek Fire to ramp up in record-breaking time cutting off the forest and eliminating logging and human traffic within 100 years would put us right back in that state so future Generations would probably experience one of the worst wildfires in our history we have to be firm and let our voices be heard that we do not want our forest that is already suffered a devastating forest fire to be taken even more away from us has screws work hard and digitally to try to clean up and restore our forest floors from the Creek Fire this will all be stopped if this movement is passed we need to stand United and defend our Sierra National Forest from this absurd Monument movement