With his final days in office, President Joe Biden is trying to cement his legacy of environmental protections. On Tuesday, he announced the designation of two new national monuments in California, amounting to 848,000 acres of federally protected land.
That includes the Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park, and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument near the Oregon border. Several of California’s indigenous tribes had long requested that these lands, sacred to their cultures, be protected from energy development.
A day earlier, Biden also announced a ban on offshore drilling on nearly all of America’s coastlines. That includes the entirety of the East and West coasts, amounting to 625 million acres of U.S. ocean.
During his time in office, Biden has also created 10 other national monuments, expanded two others, and restored three more. With these two latest moves, he’s now protected more public lands and federal waters than any other administration, the White House said Tuesday.
But, it’s unclear how many of those protections could be overturned when President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month. Trump already vowed to “unban” offshore drilling in response to Biden’s announcement, and has said he’ll challenge other Biden initiatives, like the creation of Bears Ears National Monument.
‘Largest Corridor of Protected Land’ in U.S.
While Biden may have established many national monuments during his administration, the Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California is his “capstone action,” the White House said in a statement.
By adding the zone’s 627,000 acres to other public lands, Biden has created the “largest corridor of protected lands in the continental United States,” covering nearly 18 million acres stretching 600 miles. His administration is calling it the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor. This will ensure the protection of wildlife habitat, including the Colorado River, Colorado Plateau, and the deserts of California.
The new monument will protect the ancestral homelands and cultural landscapes of the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan, and Serrano Nations, and other Indigenous peoples.
“The essence of who we are lies in the landscapes of Chuckwalla and Avi Kwa Ame,” the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. “Every trail, every living being, and every story in these places is connected to a rich history and heritage that runs in our DNA.”
The Sáttítla Highlands National Monument includes more than 224,000 acres of varied wildlife habitat, with parts of the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath national forests. It’s sacred land to the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples and is deeply important for other tribes like the Klamath and Shasta.
Geographically, the Sáttítla Highlands also offers several impressive features. That includes the Medicine Lake Volcano, a massive dormant volcano covering an expanse roughly 10 times that of Mount St. Helens in Washington. There’s also the longest-known lava tube system in the world, known as the Giant Crater.
“Much of the rain that falls on the area filters through the porous volcanic rock recharging underground aquifers that are essential for protecting and storing clean water for Northern California communities,” the White House said.
Biden’s decision to create the two monuments was supported by many environmental groups, as well as hunting and fishing advocates.
“Few of California’s public lands and waters are as valued by hunters and anglers as the Sáttítla region,” Eric Hanson, California chapter chair for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
Offshore Drilling Ban Angers Trump
The vast majority of American coastlines got protection from offshore drilling in a Monday announcement from the White House. That means no new oil or natural gas leases for the entire U.S. East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coast of Washington, Oregon, and California, and additional portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska.
“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” Biden said.
That provoked an immediate response Monday from Trump, who made the slogan “drill, baby, drill” a cornerstone of his presidential campaign.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ll unban it immediately,” Trump said in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, hours after Biden’s announcement. “It’ll be changed on Day One.”
However, reversing Biden’s ban would likely require an act of Congress, rather than a unilateral decision from the Trump White House, so it “won’t be easy” to overturn it, said Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who vowed to sue over the ban.
“I’m confident that President Trump is going to work to reverse this,” Murrill told Fox Business. “But we can’t wait for that to happen. We have to sue and try to block this action now.”
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