WASHINGTON — The President Joe Biden California is signing a proclamation to establish two new national monuments, in part to honor two tribes, a person familiar with the decision said Monday.
The proclamation will create Southern California’s Chuckwalla National Monument next to Joshua Tree National Park and Northern California’s Sáttítla National Monument, said the person who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans to be announced Tuesday. California
The declaration outlines drilling and mining and other development on about 600,000 acres (2,400 square kilometers) in southern California and 200,000 acres (800 square kilometers) in northern California.
The establishment of the new monuments was first reported in The Washington Post. Biden, with two weeks left in office, is in New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families of victims of the New Year’s Eve attack in the French Quarter and was on his way to California on Monday.
The flurry of activities coincided with the Democratic president’s 2021 “America the Beautiful” initiative, which aims to honor tribal heritage. federal goals conserving 30% of public land and water by 2030 and combating climate change.
The Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla National Monument. Several American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden in early 2023 to name the Chuckwalla National Monument after the large desert lizard.
The area would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, the Coachella Valley region to the west and near the Colorado River.
Advocates say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure local residents access to nature and preserve sites of military history. The California Legislature passed a resolution in August 2024 asking Biden to establish Chuckwalla National Monument and another National Park Service-managed national monument adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park, as well as Kw’tsán National Monument, which would border Mexico and Arizona. .
Tribal leaders have also called for the Chuckwalla monument honoring tribal sovereignty to include local tribes as custodians, following in the footsteps of a recent wave of monuments such as Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, which is supervised together with five tribal nations.
“The protection of Chuckwalla National Monument brings a tremendous sense of peace and joy to the Quechan people,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. restoration, and we are eager to completely rebuild our relationship with this place.’
In May, the Biden administration opened two national monuments California – San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden It was designated a National Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary Along the central California coast, it will include input from local Chumash tribes on how the area is conserved.
Last year, the Yurok tribe of northern California also became involved the first indigenous people to return tribal lands Under a historic agreement signed by the tribe from the National Park Service, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit organization Save the Redwoods League.
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Ding contributed to this report from Los Angeles. He reported at length from New Orleans.
