A call for a new national monument south of Joshua Tree National Park gained more momentum after a meeting on Monday which brought together state representatives and local tribal leaders.
The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument would be approximately 660,000 acres and would be the largest protected area of the Colorado Desert bioregion – which is unique compared to the neighboring Mojave. The monument would reach from Coachella Valley in the west to the Colorado river in the east. It would also aim to protect 17,000 acres of public lands int he Eagle Mountains adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park. Some of the unique species that live on that land include the chuckwalla lizard, the desert tortoise, and the desert bighorn sheep.
According to a press release from Protect Chuckwalla, a coalition of local organizations that put together the meeting on Monday – the proposed monument and park expansion has local support from tribal leaders whose homelands are within the proposed monuments – and U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz, who called for President Biden to use the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate the national monument. The over 100-year-old act allows a President the ability to designate federal public lands, water, cultural and historical sites as national monuments with a presidential proclamation.
The lands proposed for protection include the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan, and Serrano nations). The proposed national monument and the national park expansion is supported by the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe, Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, and the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians.
The proposed monument and expansion of the National Park aren’t without opposition. Some local miners say that mines they’ve held in the remote wilderness of the Eagle Mountains would be taken away, along with opening the area up to more visitation which would disturb species such as the native bighorn sheep populations.
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