National monument on California-Oregon border will remain intact after surviving legal challenge

ASHLAND, Oregon (AP) — The remote expanse of wilderness along the California-Oregon border that makes up the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument will not lose any of its acreage after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up two challenges to its expansion. Logging interests and several counties in Oregon had asked the high court to strike down a 2017 addition to the monument. Their lawsuit claimed President Barack Obama improperly made the designation because Congress had previously set aside the land for timber harvests. By gaining monument status, the area won special protections, including a prohibition on logging.