California's Giant Sequoia National Monument, an entry point to the Sierra Nevadas, will be formally eliminated, and the giant sequoias, some well over a thousand years old, opened to the highest bidder for logging. Interior secretary Ryan Zinke will be making the announcement this coming week, that he has determined that the value of the Sequoia forest to the US taxpayers is greater as timber, than as a national monument. The only alternative, Zinke said, would be to raise admission fees 1000%, which obviously would significantly drive down traffic.

Other locations up for review for resource extraction include Yosemite and Glacier national parks among others.