Napa Valley Register -

President Barack Obama is expected to announce Friday that he has created a "Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument" that includes parts of eastern Napa County.

The White House revealed Obama's intentions on Thursday in a press release embargoed until early Friday morning Eastern time. The release called the area "a biodiversity hot spot."

Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument covers 350,000 acres of public lands, including 62,000 acres in eastern Napa County. It stretches from the Snow Mountain Wilderness Area in the Mendocino National Forest 100 miles south to the mountains separating Solano and Napa counties. No private land is included.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, tried for several years to have Congress declare Berryessa Snow Mountain as a "national conservation area." When that legislation stalled, he and other supporters of the idea asked Obama last year to bestow the national monument status.

On Thursday, Thompson hailed Obama's pending announcement in a press release.

"After years of tireless work by countless numbers of people, the Berryessa Snow Mountain region is finally getting the permanent protection it deserves," Thompson said. "This national monument designation will provide a boost to our local economy, enhance recreational opportunities for tens of thousands of people, and protect important wildlife."

Obama has the power to make the declaration under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The United States has more than 100 national monuments, with President Theodore Roosevelt naming Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first.

Supporters of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument have said the status will lead to a more coordinated management plan among the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation for the lands the agencies oversee. They've said the national monument banner will raise the area's visibility, leading to more tourism and economic growth.

"This designation will forever protect wildlife habitat and watershed lands, ensuring that the lands will stay in their natural form for future generations to enjoy," said Napa County resident Carol Kunze, who is involved with various environmental groups, including the environmental group Tuleyome, in an email Thursday.

Tuleyome for years has led a push to have a Berryessa Snow Mountain area created.

Not all locals are as pleased. Craig Morton is a member of the Lake Berryessa Chamber of Commerce, which in January opposed special status for the Berryessa Snow Mountain area.

Morton said Thursday he doubts national monument status will bring more federal money to the area, as some have claimed. The federal government doesn't have much money to give.

Nor is he impressed with claims that various federal agencies managing land in the area will now have to coordinate their approaches. Agencies already work together, he said. This just sets up another bureaucratic layer.

"Overall, I think the whole thing is ridiculous," Morton said.

Lake Berryessa itself had been removed from earlier versions of a proposed Berryessa Snow Mountain area. Morton said he hopes that is still the case with Obama's designation, though details that specific were not available late Thursday.

On Friday, Obama will also announce he has designated two other national monuments: Waco Mammoth in Texas and Basin and Range in Nevada, the White House press release said.