Trump may rescind designation of Chuckwalla Monument in Riverside County

The Chuckwalla National Monument Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management This column was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters One of former President Joe Biden s last official acts was declaring the Chuckwalla National Monument on almost acres of canyon-carved mountain ranges in Riverside County This spring President Donald Trump questioned the Department of the Interior to consider removing those protections In May the Department of Justice concluded that Trump can and should reverse the monument designations But this week the White House Press Office reported CalMatters that nothing is set in stone We would not get ahead of the President on any strategy changes that may or may not be planned White House spokesperson Anna Kelly wrote in an email Janessa Goldbeck CEO of Vet Voice Foundation which lobbied for the Chuckwalla National Monument designation stated the administration might be thinking twice about reversing that status after blowback from a latest proposal in the House Budget Bill to sell off citizens lands Veterans hunters anglers a lot of people who are not traditionally invested in politics who came out to say hands off our community lands she reported Speculation that the Trump administration could revoke monument status for more than half a million acres of protected land in California has environmentalists fretting but a few outdoor recreation and mining advocates hope to undo what they call a lame duck land grab The Chuckwalla National Monument hugs the southern edge of Joshua Tree National Park and extends eastward across the Mojave and Colorado Deserts Tribal trails thread through the monument and the region is considered culturally and spiritually significant to numerous tribes Biden s proclamation stated It s also home to endangered desert tortoise and desert pupfish and rare species of aster sage and cholla that grow nowhere else on Earth according to Sierra magazine This is not just a bare landscape out in the desert tribal engagement strategist Donald Medart a member of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe stated CalMatters This is a living breathing thriving place where people have lived since time immemorial We intend to protect it by any means practicable Biden dedicated the monument in the final days of his term but it got off to an inauspicious start The White House had planned to celebrate with a ceremony at Chuckwalla on Jan then cancelled it amid powerful winds that fanned catastrophic fires in Los Angeles that day Biden issued a proclamation establishing the monument a week later On his inauguration day Jan Trump declared an power urgency to fast-track power projects and ordered the Interior Department to look at the new monuments Leaders pored over geological maps to identify their oil and mining prospective the Washington Post revealed In May a Michigan gold miner an Idaho-based off-road bicycle organization and a conservative Texas think tank sued the federal governing body to overturn the Chuckwalla monument designation alleging that it restricts access to residents lands for recreation and amateur mining However Biden s proclamation preserves existing rights to use of the land Chance Weldon director of litigation of the Texas Residents Protocol Foundation declared that s true but future mine contends and trails could be off limits He reported the foundation believes that vast national monuments declared by presidential proclamation are a misuse of the Antiquities Act which authorizes their creation When you have thousands of acres being taken off line that s something that should be decided by Congress not by the president at the stroke of a pen Weldon noted Goldbeck questioned the plaintiffs basis for challenging the monument This is an out of state entity being represented by another out of state entity trying to undo something that Californians love and fought for Environmental and tribal groups have argued that once a president dedicates a monument it can t be undone But in June the Department of Justice notified Trump he could eliminate monuments if he thinks the space or structures they contain either never were or no longer are deserving of the Antiquities Act s protections Chosen local administrators have also balked at what they consider restrictions of Chuckwalla National Monument The city of Blythe weighed in against the designation arguing that it would hurt tourism solar advance and the local business sector It s unclear whether those objections are part of the administration s calculations Trump has put the brakes on alternative capacity maturation and on Monday directed the treasury to end tax credits for wind and solar programs In a current Senate hearing Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum suggested that the monument is just too big The question is not whether the monuments serve the purpose I think the real question is the size Burgum announced responding to questions from California Sen Alex Padilla Burgum mentioned he has heard concerns from residents of other states that local communities weren t consulted on new monuments but he noted that wasn t the situation in California Padilla thanked him for acknowledging California s masses review efforts and revealed the Trump administration should follow the same process for any changes to Chuckwalla National Monument If it s going to be revisited or undone we expect that same level of engagement on the back end before any action is taken or before any decisions are made Padilla commented CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable