700,000-acre monument proposed near Joshua Tree National Park
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
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California conservation groups are proposing a new national monument adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park in southern California. The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument—named for a lizard found in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts—would protect roughly 700,000 acres of fragile desert habitat called the Chuckwalla Bench on the southern edge of the existing national park.
The proposed monument includes the microphyll woodlands, which comprise only five percent of the acreage in the Sonoran Desert but host about 90 percent of migrating birds in California deserts. The Chuckwalla Bench is also critical habitat for the threatened Agassiz's desert tortoise and the endangered Sonoran pronghorn, as well as home to several species of plants that exist nowhere else on earth, according to the Mojave Desert Land Trust.
Local groups including the California Wilderness Coalition and Protect California Deserts are working to get local lawmakers on board with the proposal. The groups are also working to add about 20,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land southeast of Joshua Tree to the national park.
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 We must do more to ensure that Native Americans have every opportunity to succeed and that their expertise informs our Federal policy-making. That is why my Administration is engaging in meaningful consultation with Tribal leaders, particularly when it comes to treaty rights, reserved rights, management and stewardship of Federal lands, consideration of Indigenous Knowledge, and other policies that affect Native peoples. That is also why I appointed Secretary Deb Haaland to be the first-ever Native American Cabinet Secretary, and why more than 50 Native Americans now serve in significant roles across the executive branch.”
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You're in for a treat because the USFWS Canine (K9) Program is back with dynamic duo costumes. See more in the thread below. Tell us your favorites!
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