Twenty-five years ago, President Bill Clinton designated the public lands where the Klamath, Siskiyou, and Cascade mountain ranges intersect the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
Clinton’s proclamation was rhapsodic:
With towering fir forests, sunlit oak groves, wildflower-strewn meadows, and steep canyons, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is an ecological wonder, with biological diversity unmatched in the Cascade Range. This rich enclave of natural resources is a biological crossroads — the interface of the Cascade, Klamath, and Siskiyou ecoregions, in an area of unique geology, biology, climate, and topography.
National parks and national monuments differ. National parks literally require an act of Congress, and areas are given consideration as potential national parks for their ”inspirational, education, and recreational values.” National monuments are public lands reserved by the federal government for permanent protection because “they contain objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific interest.” Congress can make such a designation, but they are more often established by presidential proclamation. In 2017, President Obama increased the size of the protected area by 48,000 acres.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its original designation, writer and photographer Matt Witt has produced Monumental Beauty, a lush book documenting with 130+ images the breathtaking vistas and rich wildlife of the monument. “I am drawn not only to uncluttered landscape images but also to details, shapes, and colors that reveal the monument’s beauty, up close and personal,” Witt writes in his introduction. “The monument is important for scientific and ecological reasons, but it is also a place to appreciate and immerse ourselves in the natural world.
This catalog of nature’s charms, great as mountains and as small as a fuchsia-flowered gooseberry, is a spirited argument for the protection of public lands to be held for the benefit of all–not just humans, and not just those living now–but well into the future. It is a multi-faceted manifestation of the commons, providing the benefits of nature, the potential for scientific discovery in its biodiversity, opportunities for recreation, oxygen for the planet, and, of course, sheer beauty and the inspiration it can foster.
As Witt writes, “Today, protecting this special area is even more important as everything living within and near it faces increased threats as climate change intensifies natural challenges posed by fire, insects, disease, invasive species, drought, or floods.”
But who would be against this?
Eight years ago, three groups related to the timber industry sued the federal government over the expansion in two cases that made their way to the Supreme Court, which last year declined to hear the cases.
President Trump, during his first administration, targeted national monuments like Cascade-Siskiyou to look for potential commercial opportunities. And Project 2025 specifically singled out Cascade-Siskiyou: “One national monument worthy of downward adjustment is in Oregon, where its designation and subsequent expansion interfere with the federal obligation to residents to harvest timber on its BLM lands.” Trump’s 2026 budget cuts from the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, and the administration has also floated the idea of turning some National Parks and Monuments over to the states to operate.
That’s what makes this documentation of Cascade-Siskiyou is particularly important at this moment. In the face of such looming threats on both legal and political fronts, any money generated from the sales of Monumental Beauty is going to locally-based nonprofit organizations that work on promoting and defending the monument.
Jeff Hagan
Communications Director
For more information on the book, visit MattWittPhotography.com.