The message in Andy Kerr’s column published in The Bulletin on Dec. 7 could be distilled to this:

We don’t care what Eastern Oregon thinks and you shouldn’t either.

Kerr, who owns a conservation company in Ashland, is aligned with special interests that are lobbying President Barack Obama to create a national monument in Eastern Oregon.

Along with the Oregon Natural Desert Association and KEEN Footwear, they’re asking Obama to create a monument covering 2.5 million acres near the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border. They want the president to use the 1906 Antiquities Act without consulting Congress or the families who have lived and worked in the community for more than a century.

Obama has used his executive powers 29 times, creating protections for more than 553 million acres of land and water. The most recent came in December when he declared monuments in Nevada and Utah. The Nevada site was one of five locations listed by KEEN’s “Live Monumental” marketing campaign. Eastern Oregon is one of just two left on KEEN’s list without a monument declaration.

In his letter, Kerr mocked Malheur County as being too small to matter — an opinion apparently shared by Portland-based columnist Steve Duin recently in The Oregonian. Kerr dismissed Malheur County as “not a lot of votes” compared to Multnomah County and Portland, despite the fact that 90 percent of the county’s voters said they opposed the monument.

If Kerr did ask what we think, here is what he’d hear:

Locals are the long-term interest: Kerr suggests that local residents are aligned with the short-term economic exploitation of the land. The fact is that the families who live and work in the Owyhee region have been here for three, four, five or six generations over the last 150 years. The land is beautiful because of the local families who have a long-term interest in ensuring they can pass their livelihoods onto the next generation. They are the ones who are actively managing the lands, fixing watering areas, fighting noxious weeds, maintaining wildlife habitat and fighting wildfires.

Oregonians — regardless of party or geography — believe locals deserve a voice on monuments: In our statewide poll, 73 percent of Oregonians said Congress, as the locals’ representative, should get to vote on monument declarations. Even Democrats (59 percent) and the big county Kerr mentioned, Multnomah (69 percent), agreed Congress should vote.

There’s growing opposition to the monument: The Bulletin, The Oregonian, the Statesman Journal, The Register-Guard, the East Oregonian and the Capital Press have all come out against an Owyhee monument. As have dozens of local business owners, community organizations, mayors, county commissioners and state legislators from across Oregon and more than 14,000 advocates who joined the opposition just since February. Oregon’s most influential Democrats — Gov. Kate Brown and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley — have taken no position on the monument. In fact, Merkley — one of the Senate’s more liberal members — said he would be “emphatically against” the monument if it didn’t consider local input.

We all want to protect and preserve the land. The question is: How? More than anyone, local families are the ones who want the land preserved for future generations. It’s in our self-interest. We support protections. We just don’t support this unnecessary, extreme measure that will restrict access to public lands and destroy our livelihoods and our communities.

According to news reports, the president will declare two more monuments before he leaves office. Between today and Jan. 20, we’re asking all Oregonians to visit OurLandOurVoice.com to send a message to Obama, Brown, Wyden and Merkley on behalf of Eastern Oregon:

Yes, Malheur County may be small. But it matters just like Multnomah County.

— Mark Mackenzie is a third-generation Malheur County resident and is vice president of the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition.