In favor of the about 100 people that attended a rally at Yokutz Park, the National Monuments that are in California were not a part of the three that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended to be altered.

The rally, which took place on Aug. 22 on an afternoon with the temperature reaching 91, was a response to the possibility of the Giant Sequoia National Monument being reduced in size.

Jessica Pineo, 18, is a freshman at Bakersfield College that attended the rally. She said that anyone on the political compass can agree to not reduce the size of the National Monuments because there is no monetary reason to do so.

She also stated, “I’ve grown up here my entire life and there’s so many times where I’ve taken trips to Carrizo Plain. It would be terrible to see that place be destroyed, because once a place like that is destroyed, you can’t go back. It’s gone forever.”

A band lead by Marlon Mackey was playing music for the first half of the rally.The second half of the rally was dedicated to speakers conversing with the attendees.

The mayor of Arvin, Jose Gurrola, was the last person to speak on a microphone.

He started by saying, “I never would have thought that I would have been here talking in public about the Antiquities Act.”

Gurrola then went on to mention Trump’s response to the violent protests in Charlottesville.

“Especially, defending a monument under attack from a presidential administration, and a few days after that he refused to condemn bigotry, terrorism, and hatred, and complaining about the reasons that we need to take down these Confederate statues.”

After Gurrola was done speaking, the organizers then instructed the people that attended the rally to stand next to Kevin McCarthy’s office with signs supporting the National Monuments.

The crowd of people was chanting next to McCarthy’s office, “Save the Sequoias,” “You can’t eat money,” and “The Sequoias are under attack. What do we do? Stand up; fight it back.”

The Washington Post reported on Aug. 24 that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended Trump to only change three National Monuments.

Those National Monuments are Cascade-Siskiyou, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante.