ShareTrails | 5 Reasons to Oppose the Chuckwalla National Monument

For several years environmental groups have been calling on Congress or the President of the United States to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument in California. The proposed monument would span anywhere from 600,000-700,000 acres from the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River in the east. Senator Alex Padilla has introduced legislation asking for the designation of this national monument through the Joshua Tree Expansion Act. Advocacy groups are blatantly using the Antiquities Act to bypass Congress to expand Joshua Tree National Park. National Parks can only be created and expanded through Congress.

Historically, President’s have used the Antiquities Act to create national monuments during lame duck sessions. It’s very probable that we will see national monument designations before the end of 2025 and Chuckwalla is at the top of that list.

1. Abusing the Antiquities Act to Create National Parks: Congress, and only Congress has the authority to designate national parks through the Organic Act of 1916. The number of park sites managed by the Park Service has grown to more than 420 over the past century, with units covering more than 85 million acres in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. Only Congress should have the authority to expand Joshua Tree National Park. Using the Antiquities Act as a tool for a National Park land grab in the name of Conservation undermines Congressional authority and adds another park to manage in a system that is consistently facing maintenance backlogs.
2. The Monument borders the Chocolate Mountain Air Gunnery Range: With the recent BLM rule which will allow groups to purchase conservation leases, it is unclear if foreign entities, or non-profit conservation organizations operating under significant foreign influence, could purchase a conservation lease bordering the Chocolate Mountain Air Gunnery Range. This would be a threat to our national security.
3. Substantial Wilderness and Wildlife Restrictions are already in place: There are currently several other designated wilderness areas within the proposed national monument. The main goal according to conservation groups is to protect certain species of wildlife such as the Chuckwalla Lizard which is already protected through the Endangered Species Act and the required designations of protected critical habitat.
4. Impact on Recreational Access: National monument designations limit access for recreational activities. While national monuments often allow for certain limited forms of recreation, restrictions on motorized vehicles, camping, hunting, or shooting may apply, which would directly impact outdoor enthusiasts who rely on this land for various activities.
5. The Boundaries Are Non-Sensical: The Boundaries for this monument include an insanely high amount of checkerboard private property inholdings. This means the federal government is going to have to buy these landowners our or strong arm them into abandoning their property. We are also aware that local advocates have been trying to get monument supporters to exclude the area circled in blue in the map below that is often referred to as Meccacopia. This area has several popular offroad trails, and could easily be excluded from the monument. Monument supporters have been unwilling to listen to these concerns, and haven’t provided strong justifications for why these boundaries are necessary to protect specific objects. This is just another example of a monument with boundaries designed to fill in spaces on a map instead of boundaries carefully tailored to protect specific objects.

Add Your Voice to Oppose this Monument