I am a Colorado native and have lived in Southwest Colorado for the last 20 years. The mountains are my home and I would never want to live anywhere else. Yet every year, I get the itch to seek water, specifically the ocean. My husband and I have made it a point to get our 7-year-old daughter to the ocean every year since she was born. I could sit for hours on the beach staring off into the ocean imagining the other life that lives below.

In our crazy world today, it is nice to imagine a peaceful world underwater. This is why I am so excited that on Sept. 25, President Obama created the world’s largest marine reserve by expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which is west of Hawaii.

With more than 130 undersea mountains, this place is my mountain dream underwater! These underwater mountains are major hot spots for biodiversity – up to half the creatures that live there are found nowhere else on Earth. Expanding the protection for this area now while it is healthy and has a thriving ecosystem will help make the ocean more resilient to climate change and is the best way to ensure longer-term survival of ocean life for the future.

Protecting this precious ecosystem makes it possible for my daughter to enjoy our natural world in the future with her family. Thank you, Mr. President.

Julie Thibodeau

Durango