California’s Public Lands Under Threat
Sáttítla National Monument. Photo credit: Bob Wick.
Over the weekend, the administration rolled back several Biden-era environmental regulations and briefly included in a fact sheet plans to strip protections from nearly a million acres of national monuments—likely in California. While that language has since disappeared from the White House’s website, all signs point to a coming effort to revoke protections for Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments.
Tribes, as well as local partners and Outdoor Alliance California, worked for years to permanently protect these two (and many other) California landscapes. These public lands are vital to California’s outdoor recreation community, economy, and cultural heritage.
The Chuckwalla National Monument protects 660,000 acres of public lands including open spaces for eastern Coachella Valley families and communities to enjoy such as popular trails and places of interest like Painted Canyon and Box Canyon in the Mecca Hills area, Corn Springs Campground, and the Bradshaw Trail. Chuckwalla National Monument received widespread support from congressional members, Tribal leaders, and the outdoor recreation community.
Sáttítla National Monument preserves another 206,000 acres of public lands and waters in Northern California near Mount Shasta in the Medicine Lake Highlands. The Pit River Tribe led the effort for more than three decades and the monument protects cultural and historical sites, and outdoor recreation access.
"America's national monuments, including California's Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments, are vital, not just for their cultural and ecological significance, but for the world-class outdoor recreation opportunities they provide,” said Katie Hawkins, Outdoor Alliance’s California Program Director. “These are landscapes where climbers, hikers, paddlers, and cyclists connect with the outdoors, fueling local economies and strengthening communities across California. The widespread support from Tribes, outdoor enthusiasts, businesses, and conservationists reflects how much these places mean to people. Rolling back protections for these monuments would be a shortsighted loss, undermining public access and jeopardizing the outdoor recreation economy that contributes more than a trillion dollars to the U.S. annually. These proposed rollbacks are also illegal. Leaders must respect the voices of the many Californians who have fought to protect these landscapes and to keep public lands public, conserved, and well managed for future generations.”
Californians played a key role in securing these designations, and now their voices—especially bipartisan outdoor recreation voices—will be essential in preventing these rollbacks. It seems there is a short window of opportunity to bolster protections for California’s public lands, and California’s congressional delegation, especially Republican lawmakers, will be the first line of defense in stopping these rollbacks.