SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — Approximately 627,855 acres of Southern California’s vast desert are eyed to become a national treasure.

A federal bill announced Tuesday would establish the new Chuckwalla National Monument in eastern Imperial and Riverside counties, east of the Salton Sea.

U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler (both D-Calif.) and Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25) announced the legislation titled the Chuckwalla National Monument Establishment and Joshua Tree National Park Expansion Act of 2024. As its name implies, the bill also includes language to expand Joshua Tree National Park by approximately 17,915 acres with previously designated public lands.

A primary difference between national monuments and other kinds of sites, such as national parks, is how they are established. For example, Congress can create national parks by passing legislation. U.S. presidents create national monuments on federal lands to protect significant natural, cultural or scientific features — Congress granted them this authority in the Antiquities Act of 1906.

In an April 16 letter to President Joe Biden and Department of Interior Secretary Debra A. Haaland, Butler, Padilla, and Ruiz — along with 23 Democratic congressional members from California — urged the president to use the Antiquities Act to expedite the monument’s creation.

Lands within the proposed monument are home to over 150 plant species, many of which cannot be found anywhere else, and over 50 sensitive animal species, according to the bill’s text.

The proposed monument area also includes the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan, and Maara’yam peoples (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan, and Serrano nations). Designating the Chuckwalla National Monument would help protect important spiritual and cultural values tied to the land, such as multi-use trail systems established by indigenous peoples, sacred sites and objects, traditional cultural places, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pictographs, and native plants and wildlife, according to the bill’s supporters.

Chairman Thomas Tortez Jr. of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians applauded the bill and said that for thousands of years the tribe has called the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument lands home.

Erica Schenk, chairwoman of the Cahuilla Band of Indians also voiced support.

“The area includes village sites, camps, quarries, food processing sites, power places, trails, glyphs, and story and song locations, all of which are evidence of the Cahuilla people’s and other tribes’ close and spiritual relationship to these desert lands,” Schenk said.

Jordan D. Joaquin, president of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, said the lands encompass the tribe’s “origins, history, songs, religious ceremonies, ancient sites, trails, petroglyphs, artifacts, and intaglios that are spread throughout our traditional territories. Our footsteps are etched into the landscape since the beginning of time and we continue to persist in modern times, still providing stewardship over these lands. We are wholeheartedly in support of the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument.”

While the land has important tribal significance, the national monument would be accessible to all people.

“The Chuckwalla National Monument is good for the environment, the economy and public’s health,” Ruiz said. “It aims to protect pristine wildlife habitats, endangered plants and animals, and sacred sites of significant spiritual importance to local tribes, crucial for their cultural preservation. Additionally, it will enhance tourism and economic opportunities in our region and provide a new venue for constituents to hike, bike, and enjoy the breathtaking landscapes and natural beauty of our desert. This monument will play an important role in addressing California’s and our nation’s climate change goals while promoting the growth of renewable energy.”

In addition to input from tribal leaders, the Chuckwalla National Monument boundaries were crafted with feedback from leaders within the renewable energy industry, conservation groups, utility companies, community organizations and youth leaders, according to the bill’s supporters.

The boundaries weave through the desert around tribal lands, as well as around areas established for electric power lines, sites designated for renewable energy construction and military installations.

“The Chuckwalla National Monument will protect environmental resources and tribal lands while creating an energy corridor for the electric power lines essential for the state’s clean energy future,” said Pedro J. Pizarro, president and CEO, Edison International.

The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument supports the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, which identified public lands suitable for renewable energy development; the monument boundaries were specifically drawn to avoid DRECP areas, according to supporters.

“This legislation is a testament to the reality that conservation and renewable energy progress go hand in hand,” said Raisa Lee, senior director of development, Clearway Energy Group.

Solar Energy Industries Association was also involved in crafting the legislation.

In total, proponents garnered nearly 40 comments in support.

Not everyone is in agreement. Some opponents say the proposal would eliminate desert mining and could restrict some desert recreation activities. As of Tuesday afternoon, a Change.org petition opposing the legislation had garnered over 1,500 signatures. The signatures could not be verified.

According to the April 16 letter to Biden, the Chuckwalla National Monument would contribute to the administration’s goal of permanently conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and coastal waters by 2030.

Last week, it was reported that Biden plans to expand two national monuments in California. The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the Angeles National Forest and San Bernardino National Forest is proposed to grow by about 110,000 acres. The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Yolo counties would expand by about 13,000 acres.

The exact timing of an expansion declaration is unclear, but it is likely in the coming weeks — and could coincide with April 22, 2024, Earth Day, sources told reporters.

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“The son of Mexican immigrants — a cook and house cleaner — Alex Padilla worked his way from humble beginnings to the halls of MIT, the Los Angeles City Council and the State Senate, and has become a national defender of voting rights as California’s Secretary of State. Now, he will serve in the halls of our nation’s Capitol as California’s next United States Senator, the first Latino to hold this office,” said Governor Newsom. “Through his tenacity, integrity, smarts and grit, California is gaining a tested fighter in their corner who will be a fierce ally in D.C., lifting up our state’s values and making sure we secure the critical resources to emerge stronger from this pandemic. He will be a Senator for all Californians.”

Secretary of State Padilla was sworn in as California’s first Latino Secretary of State on January 5, 2015 and pledged to bring more Californians into the democratic process as the state’s top elections official. With President Trump attacking immigrants and democracy over the past four years, Padilla has been a warrior for voting rights and the American Dream. He was re-elected in 2018 and received the most votes of any Latino elected official in the United States.

“I am honored and humbled by the trust placed in me by Governor Newsom, and I intend to work each and every day to honor that trust and deliver for all Californians,” said Secretary of State Padilla. “From those struggling to make ends meet to the small businesses fighting to keep their doors open to the health care workers looking for relief, please know that I am going to the Senate to fight for you. We will get through this pandemic together and rebuild our economy in a way that doesn’t leave working families behind.”

Since taking office, Secretary of State Padilla has worked to make California’s elections more accessible and inclusive, while fighting to protect the integrity of our voting systems. He:

• Registered over 22 million voters: Under Padilla’s leadership, voter registration is at an all-time high – over 22 million Californians are registered to vote (an increase of more than four million from the day he took office) and the highest rate in nearly seven decades.

• Expanded access to the ballot: He implemented innovations like same-day registration, online pre-registration for 16- and 17-year olds and automatic voter registration, also known as “California Motor Voter.”

• Protected our elections: He oversaw the upgrades and replacement of voting systems in all 58 counties in the state to systems that meet California’s newer, higher security standards.

Padilla also served as Chairman of the California Complete Count Committee, where he led efforts to reach hard to count communities and worked with community based organizations to secure a safe and fair Census count.

Growing up, Padilla’s mom and dad relentlessly emphasized hard work and a good education as key to a better future. With just an elementary school education, Santos worked as a short order cook for forty years before retirement. He liked to boast that his kitchen “never failed an inspection.” For the same forty years, Lupe worked tirelessly as a housekeeper for a group of families in the affluent communities of Studio City and Sherman Oaks.

Santos and Lupe raised their three children, Julie, Alex and Ackley, in a modest home in Pacoima. In the 1980s, the neighborhood became one of the more violent areas of Los Angeles and gang activity, prostitution and open-air drug dealing were rampant. Going to sleep to the sound of police helicopters was not uncommon.

Padilla attended local public schools, keeping his focus on books and baseball. He worked his way into the starting rotation at San Fernando High as a senior. The same year, his countless hours of study paid off and he won admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked his way through college doing a variety of janitorial and administrative jobs while mentoring younger students back home to follow the same path.

It was the conditions in his neighborhood growing up and the feeling that the Northeast San Fernando Valley wasn’t adequately served by government that awakened his interest in political activism. As a teenager, Padilla’s family helped organize neighbors to take back the streets from crime. He and his mother would periodically join community leaders to protest environmental injustice and demand the closure of the Lopez Canyon Landfill. In 1994, after California voters passed Proposition 187, the sweeping anti-immigrant measure, his parents finally applied for citizenship and Padilla, now a recent MIT graduate, resolved to put an engineering career aside and dedicate his life to public service.

Demanding a fair share of opportunity and resources for the people of the Northeast San Fernando Valley, Padilla was elected to the Los Angeles City Council as a political outsider at the age of 26. As a member of the City Council, he worked to expand after-school programs to serve 16 schools in his district, worked to reduce class sizes and built state-of-the-art libraries and a children’s museum. He worked to retain and create more local job opportunities through industrial, commercial and residential development and community reinvestment. And he championed citywide measures to improve air and water quality while directing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to dramatically increase procurement of renewable energy sources.

In 2001, Padilla’s colleagues elected him the youngest Council President in Los Angeles history. As President, he provided citywide leadership at critical times. He was Acting Mayor during the tragedy of September 11, 2001. He assisted in the interview and selection of William Bratton as Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department and helped negotiate the approval of LA Live and the modernization of Los Angeles International Airport. In 2005, his colleagues throughout the state elected him President of the California League of Cities.

In 2006, Padilla was elected to the State Senate to represent the more than 1 million people in the San Fernando Valley. As a State Senator, he would go on to author more than 70 bills signed into law by both Republican and Democratic governors.

Over two terms, Padilla passed major legislation:

• Fighting climate change: He passed landmark legislation increasing renewable energy standards, expanding green manufacturing and solar power, developing clean fuels and modernizing the electrical grid.

• Expanding educational opportunity: He passed bills bridging the digital divide and expanding college access, helping English language learners and protecting student athletes.

• Fostering healthier communities: He fought for universal health care, stopping tobacco sales to minors, fighting diabetes and obesity, expanding patient protections and improving food safety

• Increasing gun safety: He passed common-sense gun safety measures like tracking stolen guns and stopping felons from possessing body armor.

• Harnessing innovation: As an engineer, he fought for the ethical advancement of science and technology. He authored legislation protecting Californians from discrimination based on genetic information and wrote the bill creating a statewide Earthquake Early Warning System.

Padilla lives with his wife Angela, a mental health advocate, and their three sons in the San Fernando Valley.

-Office of Governor California

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