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 demanded 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 stated CalMatters that nothing is set in stone We would not get ahead of the President on any protocol 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 commented the administration might be thinking twice about reversing that status after blowback from a fresh proposal in the House Budget Bill to sell off residents lands Veterans hunters anglers a lot of people who are not traditionally invested in politics who came out to say hands off our inhabitants lands she commented 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 certain 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 major 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 explained CalMatters This is a living breathing thriving place where people have lived since time immemorial We intend to protect it by any means attainable 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 vigor exigency to fast-track power projects and ordered the Interior Department to look at the new monuments Personnel pored over geological maps to identify their oil and mining expected the Washington Post announced In May a Michigan gold miner an Idaho-based off-road carriage organization and a conservative Texas think tank sued the federal executive to overturn the Chuckwalla monument designation alleging that it restricts access to population 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 Population Initiative Foundation stated that s true but future mine proposes and trails could be off limits He mentioned 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 commented 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 described 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 Certain local agents 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 advancement and the local economic system It s unclear whether those objections are part of the administration s calculations Trump has put the brakes on alternative potential progress and on Monday directed the treasury to end tax credits for wind and solar programs In a new 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 stated responding to questions from California Sen Alex Padilla Burgum noted he has heard concerns from residents of other states that local communities weren t consulted on latest monuments but he noted that wasn t the circumstance in California Padilla thanked him for acknowledging California s community review efforts and noted 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 reported 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