16,400 petitions submitted to President Biden asking for new California monument

OAKLAND, Calif.– Environment California Research & Policy Center and partner organizations delivered 16,486 petitions to the Department of the Interior and the White House on Wednesday. The petitions called for President Joe Biden to officially designate the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument. Declaring a new monument would permanently protect more than 660,000 acres in California’s Sonoran desert near Joshua Tree National Park.

“The Chuckwalla National Monument proposal is a perfect complement to the bill that the California state legislature passed last year to protect 30 percent of our state’s lands and waters by 2030,” said Environment California Research and Policy Center State Director Laura Deehan. “We’ve been thrilled to see new national monuments in other states. Now, it’s California’s turn.”

The area is home to sensitive wildlife species including Chuckwalla lizards, desert tortoises, Sonoran pronghorn and more.

“California’s desert is a critically important ecosystem and this new monument will connect important wildlife areas from Joshua Tree National Park all the way to the Kofa National Wildlife refuge across the Arizona border,” said Environment America Research & Policy Center Public Lands Campaign Director, Ellen Montgomery. “In the face of biodiversity loss, we must protect as many wildlife habitats as possible. We urge the President to act to protect the California desert.”

President Biden has already designated five national monuments during his presidency and has protected other important public lands in Alaska’s Western Arctic, New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon and Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.