This spring President Donald Trump asked 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 told CalMatters that nothing is set in stone: “We would not get ahead of the President on any policy 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, said the administration might be thinking twice about reversing that status after blowback from a recent proposal in the House Budget Bill to sell off public lands.

“Veterans, hunters, anglers, a lot of people who are not traditionally invested in politics who came out to say hands off our public lands,” she said. 

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 some 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 important 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, told CalMatters. “This is a living, breathing, thriving place, where people have lived since time immemorial. We intend to protect it by any means possible.”

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. 7, 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. 20, Trump declared an “energy emergency” to fast-track power projects, and ordered the Interior Department to look at the new monuments. Officials pored over geological maps to identify their oil and mining potential, the Washington Post reported.

In May, a Michigan gold miner, an Idaho-based off-road vehicle organization and a conservative Texas think tank sued the federal government to overturn the Chuckwalla monument designation, alleging that it restricts access to public 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 Public Policy Foundation, said that’s true, but future mine claims and trails could be off limits. He said 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 said.

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 told 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.”

Some local officials 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 development and the local economy.

It’s unclear whether those objections are part of the administration’s calculations. Trump has put the brakes on alternative energy development, and on Monday directed the treasury to end tax credits for wind and solar programs.

In a recent 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 said, responding to questions from California Sen. Alex Padilla.

Burgum said he has heard concerns from residents of other states that local communities weren’t consulted on recent monuments, but he noted that wasn’t the case in California. Padilla thanked him for acknowledging California’s public review efforts and said 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 said.

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President Joe Biden declared the national monument before leaving office in January, protecting 624,270 acres of desert habitat in Riverside and Imperial counties from development.

The New York Times and Washington Post both reported Trump’s pending action on the monument Saturday, after the White House posted a fact sheet late Friday citing numerous executive orders rolling back actions of the Biden administration, including one “terminating proclamations declaring a million acres of new national monuments that lock up vast amounts of land that lock up economic development and energy production.”

However, that item was later removed, and the White House had not issued further clarification as of midday Sunday.

The Post reported that Trump also planned to rescind the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in Northern California.

Coachella Valley leaders were advocating for maintaining the protection, and vowing to fight any attempt to rescind it.

“I hope the Trump administration doesn’t alter Chuckwalla National Monument. Chuckwalla is extremely popular across the political spectrum and was advocated for by a large, bipartisan coalition. Our local communities know that safeguarding our desert is good for the economy and is smart for the well-being of generations to come,” said Assemblyman Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes.

Palm Desert City Councilman Evan Turbee, who owns Big Wheel Tours, said his business, which takes visitors out to experience off-roading adventures in Chuckwalla, depends on the protected land.

“Hundreds of business owners like myself advocated for Chuckwalla National Monument to be protected and removing those protections would be deeply, deeply unpopular. There is nothing partisan about it — it’s something our community really fought for,” he said.

“Chuckwalla National Monument isn’t just a stretch of land — it’s a historic military training ground where American troops honed their skills in the unforgiving desert before heading into battle during WWII. It’s a place of deep significance where veterans and civilians alike find recreation, reflection, and refuge. Taking a sledgehammer to it would throw open the gates to corporate interests and the highest bidder,” said Janessa Goldbeck, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and CEO of Vet Voice Foundation.

Iris Gutierrez, executive director of the High Desert Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said she is one of more than 300 business leaders who called for the Chuckwalla National Monument to be established.

“We should protect this economic engine, not put it on the chopping block. Any attacks on our public lands will be a setback for local businesses and threaten the local quality of life we all enjoy,” Gutierrez said.

Along with the Chuckwalla National Monument, the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument near Mount Shasta in northern California was also included in the plans to be rescinded, according to reports from the New York Tines and the Washington Post.

Both the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla monuments were established under the Antiquities Act of 1906, and it was unclear under what legal authority Trump could roll back their designations.

Attempts to reach the White House for comment over the weekend were not immediately successful.

Advocates for the national monument said last year that they were seeking to protect the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples, also known as the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mohave (CRIT Mohave), Quechan and Serrano nations.

“Since time immemorial, we have called the lands in the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument home,” said Secretary Altrena Santillanes of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. “These lands contain thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to the history and identity of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.”

Advocates said it would also “protect important heritage values tied to the land, such as multi-use trail systems established by Indigenous peoples and sacred sites,” in addition to further recognizing tribal sovereignty and allow new ways for tribes to co-steward their homelands with federal agencies.

They said added protections for public lands would increase equitability in accessing the natural parts of the eastern Coachella Valley and surrounding areas, such as Mecca’s Painted Canyon trail and the Bradshaw Trail in southeastern Riverside County.

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