Bears Ears National Monument is one of several landscapes currently threatened by efforts to open them for extractive industries to exploit. Photo by Dave Showalter.

There are currently 138 National Monuments across the United States, managed by the federal government to protect a wide range of natural, historical, and cultural resources. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, these sites include areas of geologic, marine, archaeological, and cultural significance.

Since 1906, presidents have used the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments without requiring congressional approval. The Act also allows for the expansion of existing monuments to ensure continued protection.

Today, some national monuments face renewed scrutiny. The current administration has proposed reducing or eliminating certain protections, with the Secretary of the Interior calling for a review of designated lands to assess the potential for resource extraction through mining and drilling.

Photo by Misty Kaltreider

This month’s photo comes from a flight with the Delta Protection Commission in California. They provide stewardship of the lowest-lying area of California’s Central Valley, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers converge in a maze of waterways before reaching the Pacific Ocean. The flight took participants in the Delta Leadership Program (19 participants from throughout the Delta region, all of whom either work or live in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region) in the air to get an aerial overview of the Delta region and gain a better perspective on the ways the rivers interact with the environment.