Biden to create two new national monuments in California

President Joe Biden on Tuesday will trek to a remote box canyon in the rugged southern California desert as he seeks to cement his environmental legacy as one of the most aggressive conservationists in presidential history.

To do it, he will officially protect more than 620,000 acres of ancient, sacred rock formations and sweeping desert washes surrounding him as the new Chuckwalla National Monument, and create the approximately 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument in mountainous Northern California near the Oregon border. The actions come the day after he permanently banned oil drilling in more than 625 million acres of ocean off the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Alaskan coasts, reflecting a president eager to cement his environmental legacy in the waning days of his administration.

In a statement on the actions taken this week, the White House noted Biden has protected 674 million acres of U.S. lands and waters while in office, claiming the outgoing president has conserved more lands and waters than any president in history.

The last-minute push to expand his conservation record by more than 12-fold could be upended at least in part by his successor in the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress. President-elect Donald Trump immediately vowed on Monday to "unban" drilling in the federally managed ocean waters, which make up the bulk of the 674 million acres which Biden is taking credit for protecting. During his first term, Trump and his appointees also stripped away much of the acreage the Obama-Biden administration had designated as monuments, much of which Biden then reinstated. That tit for tat could continue.

But Tuesday is expected to be a day of warm sunshine and jubilation for a broad coalition of groups and elected officials who pushed hard for the creation of the newest national monuments, which guarantee strong protections of tribal sacred sites and relics as well as historic military training grounds used by Major Gen. George Patton, critical habitat for millions of migrating birds, endangered desert tortoise, iconic chuckwalla lizards and other species, and expanded tourism revenues and recreational opportunities for nearby, working-class Latino residents.

"We are grateful that the administration has heeded the call of thousands of Californians to protect our fragile deserts,” said Elizabeth Gray, CEO of the National Audubon Society, one of a bevy of environmental leaders who praised Biden's action. “This historic designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument not only ensures the preservation of the area’s rich biodiversity but also provides a critical sanctuary in addressing the climate crisis and supports the livelihoods of underserved communities."

By preserving sites of extreme importance to California tribes via the 1906 Antiquities Act, Biden will be fulfilling its original intent — the law was passed by Congress and signed by President Teddy Roosevelt to provide broad protection of archeological, cultural and natural resources in an era when looting of tribal lands had become common. Since then, it has also been used nearly 300 times by U.S. presidents, often in the waning days of their presidencies, to set aside public lands and protect archeological resources.

Many iconic national parks first were designated as monuments, including Grand Canyon National Park in 1908 and Joshua Tree National Park in 1936. In recent decades many presidents have created new monuments as their terms wound down, often over loud objections from state leaders and industry officials.

“California is now home to two new national monuments that honor the tribes that have stewarded these lands since time immemorial," said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who also plans to be at the event. "Thanks to President Biden and the leadership of California tribes and local communities, we’re protecting 840,000 acres of some of our state’s most culturally significant lands. This is a huge boost for our efforts to protect 30% of California’s lands and coastal waters.”

Joseph Mirelez, new tribal chairman of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians underscored the importance of the designation.

"For thousands of years, the Torres Martinez Desert Indians have called the lands in the Chuckwalla National Monument home," he said. "We are happy to see the designation to protect this area that contains thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to (our) history and identity."

The tribe is one of the nine nations of Cahuilla Indians, which include the first known inhabitants of the Coachella Valley as well as Riverside and San Diego counties and the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountain areas.

Theft of relics and occasional desecration of sacred sites still occurs, said Donald Madart, Jr., a councilmember with the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian tribe in eastern Riverside County, which will see portions of its ancestral homelands near the Colorado River protected, including active worship sites and thousands of sacred relics.

He said several new monuments either created or being considered by Biden "all provide us an opportunity to continue religious freedoms of the native people of this land ... It's a lot bigger than just the protection of a landscape for beauty purposes."

He said co-management of the new monuments by tribes was crucial, which the White House pledged to try to achieve.

Northern California monument also sacred to tribes

The second new monument is the 200,000-acre Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California near the Oregon border. A spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Tribes, the Sáttítla monument footprint also encompasses mountain woodlands, rare meadows and serpentine seeps that are home to rare flowers and wildlife.

“(The area) is actually the place of our creation narrative ... and this has been an ongoing, continuously used ceremonial area of the Pit River people since the beginning of time,” said Brandy McDaniels, a Pit River tribal member who’s led its national monument campaign.

The monument — with Sáttítla referring to the volcanic ecosystem and obsidian flows found in the area — will protect a region that McDaniels calls “a natural buffer to climate change,” noting it supports world-renowned fisheries, agriculture and wildlife habitat.

McDaniels also said the designation fits into Biden’s national goal of conserving 30% of U.S. lands and oceans by 2030, adding the local tribes have managed to fend off proposals to industrialize the area newly covered by the Sáttítla National Monument.

Broad, long battle to win monuments

Biden's latest actions cap a lengthy and broad-based battle to protect the lands as monuments after generational efforts by area tribes to regain control of remaining portions of their traditional homelands. In April, a petition with more than 800,000 signatures supporting the proposed two monuments and others was presented to the White House and unveiled in front of the U.S. Capitol. Members of Congress, led by Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, also a Democrat, and former U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler of California pushed hard but unsuccessfully to pass bipartisan legislation to create the Chuckwalla monument.

Ruiz, who grew up hiking area canyons and who proposed to his wife in one, said, "I am thrilled."

Alluding to a deal with major solar industry groups last spring that carved 40,000 acres off the original proposed Chuckwalla footprint in exchange for their support, he said, "Chuckwalla National Monument will pave the way for the future of conservation and renewable energy."

The White House announcement was careful to say existing and new transmission lines and other infrastructure in areas designated for energy use would still be allowed.

He also led Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and others on tours through areas proposed for the designation. Biden truly made history when he appointed Haaland, who is Native American, to her post overseeing huge swaths of federal lands taken from tribes more than a century ago, as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has a checkered past in tribal relations.

Visit marks Biden's first trip to California desert while in office

While Biden has visited many regions of the Golden State during his time in office, Tuesday's visit will mark his first reported trip to the California desert since he took office in January 2021.

The president’s trip to the valley comes just a few months after Trump held an October campaign rally near Coachella, where he bashed California’s policies and its leading elected officials.

Biden’s visit to the California desert also comes nearly a year after his wife, first lady Jill Biden, was the headlining speaker for a private Democratic fundraiser in Rancho Mirage. At the time, in March 2024, Biden was still months away from announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election in the presidential election.

Biden’s visit is the latest in a long history of visits to the valley from those in the White House. Several presidents — both Democrats and Republicans — have vacationed here, dating back to late former President Dwight Eisenhower, while former President Gerald Ford lived in Rancho Mirage for decades after his presidency until his death in 2006.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stayed at a private home in Rancho Mirage several times, both during and after Obama's presidency.

It's also not Biden's first action aimed at environmental conservation around the Coachella Valley. Among other things, his administration allocated $250 million in 2022 to help restore the Salton Sea, California's largest but dwindling and polluted lake, near the western edge of the new Chuckwalla monument.

Monument drew local support from many tribes, cities

Reports of the president’s actions have also drawn cheers from local officials in the Coachella Valley. At least seven of the valley's nine cites, along tribes and nonprofits based in the desert, supported the designation.

Palm Desert Mayor Pro Tem Evan Trubee, who runs a company that offers local bike and driving tours across the Southern California desert, said he’s been among those advocating for the monument over the past year.

“A lot of people will make that drive down Interstate 10 toward Arizona and look out their window and think this is just a lifeless, barren moonscape, when, in fact, it's a really delicate, sensitive ecosystem with several protective species, including desert tortoise,” he added. “It doesn't take much to really impact it.”

Trubee estimated his company, Big Wheel Tours, takes thousands of tourists out to the Mecca Hills Wilderness each year. He expects that number will grow considerably with the new designation, noting part of the monument follows the San Andreas fault line — a frequent source of interest for visitors.

Trubee also credited Ruiz as deserving “the lion’s share of credit for this thing.”

“Dr. Ruiz really brought the coalition together, and he has the influence to make this thing happen, to be the go-between our valley and D.C. and get it on the president's radar,” Trubee said.

Trubee added he hopes the monument brings economic benefits to its closest communities, including North Shore, Thermal, Mecca and Coachella.

“I would love to see those communities prosper and thrive by virtue of more tourists coming through there and spending money,” Trubee said.

Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today Climate Point, a weekly newsletter on climate, energy and the environment. She can be reached at [email protected] Tom Coulter covers the mid-valley for The Desert Sun. Reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Biden to visit California desert, create new national monuments