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It's too early to say how soon the region might feel the effects of the newly created Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, federal official's say. Friday's declaration of the monument status begins a long process of creating a new management plan for the federal lands included it its boundaries.

A choice chunk of Northern California's backcountry is getting the federal attention it needs with President Obama's decision to give enhanced protections for 331,000 acres across five near-Bay Area counties.

Three Democratic legislators proposed a bill Thursday that would tighten control over firearm sales to keep guns away from the mentally unstable.

Tourists and nature lovers in California will see more than 330,000 acres set aside for a new monument at Berryessa Snow Mountain.

The area is one of three planned national monuments announced Friday by the White House that together will add protection for mammoth bones, prehistoric rock carvings and more than a million acres of wilderness in northern California, Nevada and Texas.

Relatives and friends of the victims of last month's shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina church traveled to Washington on Wednesday to demand that US lawmakers vote on legislation to expand background checks on gun sales.

President Barack Obama is designating the Berryessa Snow Mountain area as a national monument, permanently protecting the rolling mountainous region that runs through Napa, Lake, Mendocino, Solano and Yolo counties.