President Biden Designates Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland today applauded President Biden’s designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California. This comes on the same day President Biden also established Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California.

The new national monument spans over 624,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management-managed public lands where the Colorado and Mojave Deserts come together, offering stunning mountains and canyons, important cultural and historic resources, rich biodiversity, and unique geological features.   

The President’s action builds upon decades of efforts from Tribal Nations, the local community, and federal, state and local elected leaders to protect the historic, cultural and scenic value of these lands.

“The stunning canyons and winding paths of the Chuckwalla National Monument represent a true unmatched beauty. It was my honor to visit this area to explore and meet with federal, state, Tribal and local leaders to hear about the need to protect and conserve this sacred area,” said Secretary Haaland. “President Biden’s action today will protect important spiritual and cultural values tied to the land and wildlife. I am so grateful that future generations will have the opportunity to experience what makes this area so unique.”

President Biden Designates Chuckwalla National Monument in California

The national monument’s unique desert landscape is a transitional zone between ecosystems that provides critical connectivity and habitat for numerous rare species, such desert bighorn sheep, Gila woodpecker, and the federally threatened Agassiz’s desert tortoise.  

Chuckwalla National Monument holds sites of traditional, cultural and spiritual significance and locations within the monument are part of the creation stories of multiple Tribal Nations.

The lands within the new national monument are part of the ancestral homelands of numerous Indigenous communities, including the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan, and Maara’yam peoples (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan and Serrano Nations) and include ancient trail systems that people continue to travel today by foot and through songs passed down across generations.

The area contains an abundance of artifacts including ceramics, tools, habitation sites, and petroglyphs. Many of the region’s native plants were gathered for food, including mesquite and ironwood seeds, wild grasses, and cacti.  

In May 2024, Secretary Haaland visited southern California and met with federal, state, Tribal and local officials and community members to discuss their vision to conserve the ecological, cultural, historical and natural integrity of the lands for present and future generations. In June 2024, Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis and BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning held a public meeting in Indio, CA to hear from the community about the proposal to designate a national monument and meet shared clean energy goals.  

“The establishment of Chuckwalla National Monument demonstrates that we can balance conservation and drive toward a clean energy future that serves everyone,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Daniel-Davis. “The renewable energy industry was a valuable partner in our work to build consensus and collaboration around the proposed monument. To meet the climate crisis with the urgency it requires, we must continue to find ways to protect sacred lands, plants and wildlife while pursuing a clean energy agenda.”   

Chuckwalla National Monument is consistent with the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), a landscape-level plan that identified areas suitable for renewable energy development as well as lands that should be safeguarded for their biological, cultural, recreation and other values. The monument boundaries do not include areas identified in the DRECP as most suitable for solar development.  

Relics of California’s mining history from the mid-1800s are present throughout the greater Chuckwalla region’s mountain ranges, including old mining shafts and the Bradshaw Trail, which was designated as a National Backcountry Byway in 1992.

The region also played a vital role in the nation’s defeat of the Axis powers in World War II.  To prepare U.S. Army units for combat in North Africa, the Department of the Army established the Desert Training Center in California and Nevada, including a significant part of the Chuckwalla Valley. Remnants of camps and training exercises, including a hill from which Major General George Patton was known to observe tank maneuvers, can still be seen today.  

The designation is subject to valid existing rights and does not preclude the maintenance or upgrade of utility, pipeline and telecommunications facilities, roads or highway corridors, or water infrastructure, including wildlife water developments and water district facilities. The designation does not preclude the construction of new such facilities, consistent with the proper care and management of the objects of historic or scientific interest, and with relevant provisions in the proclamation.  

To help inform the BLM’s management of the national monument, the presidential proclamation calls for the establishment of an advisory committee with representation from local governments, renewable energy and electric utility industry, recreational users, and Tribal Nations, among others. The proclamation also calls for meaningful engagement with Tribal Nations, including seeking opportunities for co-stewardship of the national monument.

In April 2024, Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler and Congressman Raul Ruiz introduced legislation that proposed to establish a national monument in the region.  

President Biden designated the Chuckwalla National Monument using his authority under the Antiquities Act. The Antiquities Act was first used by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 to designate Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

Since then, 18 presidents from both parties, including recent Presidents Trump, Obama, G.W. Bush and Clinton, have used this authority to protect unique natural and historic features on federal lands in America, such as the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and Berryessa Snow Mountain in California.