The Trump administration is considering reducing the boundaries of six national monuments for possible mining and drilling for energy resources, including the recently designated Chuckwalla preserve in Riverside County, according to published reports Thursday.
According to the Washington Post citing insiders and a leaked draft of an Interior Department document that SF Gate also obtained, federal officials discussed plans for “land swaps/exchanges” to bolster coal, oil and natural gas production, along with the intention to open “Alaska and other federal lands for mineral extraction.”
The six targeted monuments cover about 5.4 million acres of land throughout the American Southwest and receive over 6.6 million visitors each year.
The Interior Department report does not mention specific monuments, but anonymous sources told the Washington Post that they include Chuckwalla National Monument in southeast Riverside County, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon and Ironwood Forest National Monument in Arizona, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico along with Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.
The Interior Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Local officials responded to the reports concerning the Chuckwalla monument.
“I hope the Trump administration doesn’t alter Chuckwalla National Monument,” California Assemblyman Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes, said in a statement. “Chuckwalla is extremely popular across the political spectrum and was advocated for by a large, bipartisan coalition. Our local communities know that safeguarding our desert is good for the economy and is smart for the well-being of generations to come.”
Evan Trubee, a Palm Desert City Council member and owner of Big Wheel Tours, also called for the monument to remain intact.
“I own a small business that takes visitors out to experience offroading adventures in the Chuckwalla National Monument and on other desert lands,” Trubee said in a statement. “Protected public lands are our bread and butter. My business depends on these places, and they make our area a great place to live.
“Hundreds of business owners like myself advocated for Chuckwalla National Monument to be protected, and removing those protections would be deeply, deeply unpopular,” Trubee added. “There’s nothing partisan about it, it’s something our community really fought for.”
During the previous Trump administration, the president ordered a review in 2017 of more than 25 monuments in an effort to promote mining, drilling and logging on public lands. The administration ended reducing Bears Ears by 85%, totaling over 1 million acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 45%. Ironwood Forest, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte National Monument were also on the first Trump administration’s radar, but no official changes were made before President Donald Trump left office in January 2021.
The recent Interior document dated April 21 picks up on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s Feb. 3 order, “Unleashing American Energy, which gave the Bureau of Land Management 15 days to document mineral deposits in every state’s public lands and submit the information to the department. In March, a Trump executive order categorized coal as a mineral.
Coal is one of several resources found at Grand Staircase-Escalante, according to Jacqualine Grant, geoscientist and executive director of Grand Staircase Escalante Partners. Grant told SF Gate that approximately 9 billion tons of coal are inside monument boundaries. Uranium, cobalt and oil are also there, but it was unclear if extracting those resources would yield enough economic gain to justify the loss of public space and preserved wilderness, Grant said.
“Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a landscape cherished by Americans across the political spectrum,” according to Grant. “Every reduction to the monument chips away at the scientific, cultural, and economic values it provides to our local, state, and national economies.”
Conservationists point out that public lands should be spared from resource extraction because of their key roles in community building and driving tourism.
“Once designated, national monuments become integral parts of their communities’ economic and social fabric, driving tourism and elevating access to recreation,” Kelly Herbinson, conservation biologist and executive director of Mojave Desert Land Trust, said in a statement following Burgum’s order. “Public lands are also an important buffer against urbanization.”
Many national monuments are also valuable to Indigenous tribes in the Southwest, including Chuckwalla, which the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe was instrumental in creating, and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
“The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians have understood for ages the significance of safeguarding this landscape for future generations,” tribe Chairman Joseph Mirelez said in a statement. “It is essential that the Chuckwalla National Monument remains protected; if these areas are lost and the natural resources vanish, our people today and those who come after us will be deprived of their traditional ways of life.”
According to the Interior document, one benchmark of success will be that monuments are “assessed and correctly sized.” The proposal calls for gathering feedback by July 18 from members of tribes and Congress. Afterward if the plan is approved, it will go to the federal register. It’s unclear if any other proposals concerning national monuments are under consideration.
Interior Department spokesperson Kathryn Martin told the Washington Post.“The internal document is marked draft/deliberative for a reason — it’s not final nor ready for release.”
