Dear President Biden:

Patagonia is a U.S.-based outdoor apparel brand with a 50-year history of environmental activism. We strongly support the expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument to include Molok Luyuk (Condor Ridge) in northern California and the proposed co-management of the landscape with federally recognized Tribes in the area.

Protecting and preserving the environment is a core business tenet as reflected in our company’s mission statement: “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” In 2012, Patagonia became a California Benefit Corporation, enshrining our blended goals of business and conservation into our articles of incorporation. Patagonia believes deeply in the urgent shared responsibility to protect the environment. The future of our business, along with other companies who depend on the outdoor recreation economy, depends on the health of the wild places that customers explore, which includes Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and Molok Luyuk.

Molok Luyuk is considered ancestral lands by many Indigenous Tribes including the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation. The land also offers incredible opportunities for hiking and includes critical wildlife habitat. We encourage your Administration to establish a co-management structure with the federally recognized Tribes in the area to provide for more robust land management, including wildfire prevention. Protecting and better managing this important habitat will help preserve biodiversity and conserve a critical wildlife corridor. Further, the proposed expansion would also help improve access to the outdoors for the region’s residents and help contribute to our nation’s important goal of protecting 30% of land and water by 2030. Expanding the monument is a chance to protect a rare and rugged landscape sacred to the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, and it will be critically important to our nation’s conservation goals.

America’s public lands and outdoor recreation industry can be powerful forces for stimulating the economy in the years ahead. Prior to the pandemic, the outdoor industry was growing faster than the rest of the economy, generating $887 billion in consumer spending annually, as well as supporting 7.6 million jobs that can’t be outsourced or automated, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Accordingly, in California alone—where Molok Luyuk is located—the outdoor recreation industry supports more than 567,000 jobs and $73.8 billion in state and local revenue.

For all these reasons, we strongly encourage you to use the Antiquities Act to expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument to include Molok Luyuk. Patagonia joins the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Tuleyome, the state of California and other stakeholders in supporting the expansion of the national monument and a co-management structure with the federally recognized Tribes in the area to provide for more robust land management.

Sincerely,

Meghan Wolf, Senior Manager of Environmental Campaigns, Patagonia

Cc:
The Honorable Deb Haaland, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior The Honorable Alex Padilla, U.S. Senator
The Honorable Laphonza Butler, U.S. Senator
The Honorable John Garamendi, U.S. House of Representatives
The Honorable Mike Thompson, U.S. House of Representatives