At a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, Steve Pearce, the nominee for director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, pledged to maintain protections from mining and energy production for the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, responded to recent moves by the Trump administration to cancel protections for the nation’s public lands during the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, highlighting Pearce’s U.S. House voting record on public lands when he represented Congressional District 2 in New Mexico from 2003-09 and 2011-19.
President Joe Biden established the 624,270-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Riverside and Imperial counties shortly before he left office in January 2025.
“From a California perspective, the Bureau of Land Management manages nearly 15% of California’s land mass, so it’s critical for us that BLM and the BLM director maintain these lands for future generations to enjoy and not just knee jerk sell them to the highest bidder,” Padilla told Pearce at the hearing. “These BLM lands in California include Chuckwalla National Monument. For years, I worked with numerous tribal leaders who led the effort to protect the natural resources in that area and to promote access to what is now Chuckwalla. It was a thoughtfully crafted proposal, as you and I discussed in my office, that took into account the input from stakeholders, conservationists, of course, energy developers, utilities, tribal leaders, hunters, recreation groups, and others, and we ended up with universal local support from the state and bipartisan support here in the Senate and in Congress.
“As a result, as one of the outcomes of that, five tribes have even formed an Intertribal Commission to solidify their enduring commitment to protecting sacred lands in Chuckwalla,” Padilla said. “My question is clear and simple, Mr. Pearce. If confirmed, are you committed to honoring these monument designations? Yes or no?”
After Pearce answered affirmatively, Padilla responded, “That’s a great answer. Short, clear, concise and on the record, and I appreciate your support for maintaining these protections.”
If Pearce is confirmed, Padilla said he would arrange a meeting about Chuckwalla with the new BLM director and members of the Intertribal Commission.
“As a representative of southern New Mexico, we had multiple Pueblos, we had Apache tribes and we had Navajos,” Pearce replied. “We worked extremely closely with all of those to accomplish objectives they were looking for in their lands. I would visualize very similar. The Native Americans sometimes are overlooked, from Washington.
“We became a voice for them and would continue to do that,” Pearce said.
“Right, and we talked about meaningful, substantive consultation, not just the checking of a box that has happened so much over the course of history,” California’s senior senator responded.
“Absolutely,” Pearce said.
Padilla and Chuckwalla Monument proponents say the designation safeguards key spiritual and cultural values tied to the land such as multi-use trail systems established by Indigenous peoples, sacred sites, objects and artifacts, traditional cultural places, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pictographs, native plants and local wildlife. Federal protections also provide more equitable access to nature for eastern Coachella Valley communities and nearby areas.
Last year, Padilla and monument supporters criticized a U.S. Department of Justice legal opinion that could enable federal officials to eliminate or reduce the boundaries of California’s recently established monuments, Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands in Siskiyou County.
A statement to HeySoCal.com from the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees BLM, said, “There are no plans to privative any public lands managed by Interior. Additionally, we cannot speculate on future actions that might involve national monuments.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement, “President Trump was elected with an overwhelming mandate to ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ and unleash America’s energy potential. Steve Pearce is highly qualified to lead the Bureau of Land Management and aligns with the President’s popular and commonsense energy dominance agenda.”
During the Senate committee hearing, Padilla noted that the monument has bipartisan political support. Padilla also said the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe and the Colorado River Indian Tribes have formed the Chuckwalla National Monument Intertribal Commission to sustain their lasting commitment to safeguard lands sacred to their cultures.
Pearce said if confirmed as BLM director, he will meet with the Intertribal Commission to learn more about the monument and engage in “meaningful” consultation with tribal leaders.
Several conservationist groups, military veterans, hunting groups and local politicians have opposed Pearce’s nomination.
“California’s vast public lands are treasures that provide our communities with boundless access to recreation and support critical water and wildlife resources,” Big Bear Mayor Randall Putz said. “Steve Pearce’s anti-public lands ideology is a direct assault on the values we hold dear, and will make the job of protecting our forests, rivers, and iconic landscapes much more difficult.
“His nomination to lead the BLM jeopardizes the livelihoods of Western communities like ours that rely on these lands to create good-paying jobs and to sustain our outdoor way of life,” Putz added.
“If you live in San Bernardino or Riverside Counties, or even just enjoy visiting these places, you should care about who runs the Bureau of Land Management,” Colin Barrows with the Coachella Valley-based CactusToCloud Institute said in a statement. “The BLM is in charge of millions of acres of public lands in our region — including places where you may enjoy hiking, biking, off-highway driving, camping, and more. …
“Steve Pearce, has been openly adversarial to public lands in the past,” Barrows said. “He once spoke negatively about the creation of the National Parks Service, and co-wrote a letter saying about America’s public lands ‘most of it we do not even need.’ This administration is trying to accelerate the sell-off and privatization of public lands, plain and simple.
“At the end of the day, this is about your right to access your public lands. That’s at risk if Sell Off Steve is in charge, and why you should call your senators and tell them to oppose his nomination,” Barrows said.
“The nomination of Steve Pearce to lead the Bureau of Land Management is extremely troubling for our region,” Norman Bossom, outings leader with the Sierra Club’s San Gorgonio Chapter, said in a statement. “As someone who regularly leads hikes on BLM lands, I’ve seen firsthand how these landscapes connect people to nature — from wide-open desert vistas to quiet canyons where families come to learn about wildlife and public lands for the first time. Leadership at BLM should prioritize conservation, responsible stewardship, and public access.
“I worry that Pearce’s record signals a shift toward prioritizing privatization, which could mean selling off or developing the very places we depend on for recreation, education, and renewal,” Bossom said. “These lands belong to all of us, and we deserve a director committed to safeguarding them for future generations.”
Groups such as the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and energy groups have supported Pearce’s nomination.
“Steve Pearce is exactly the kind of experienced, principled leader we need at the helm of the Bureau of Land Management,” Melissa Simpson, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement. “His long record in Congress shows a consistent commitment to multiple use — expanding domestic energy production, supporting grazing and recreation, and protecting truly special landscapes through targeted conservation.”
The BLM director oversees approximately 15 million acres of public land in California. If committee members vote to confirm Pearce, his nomination moves to the full Senate for a final vote.
