Obama moves to protect 1.8 million acres of California desert

President Barack Obama has designated more than 7,300 square kilometers of southern California desert for three national monuments. The new Mojave Trails National Monument links the Mojave National Preserve to Joshua Tree National Park and other existing Wilderness Areas. The 1906 Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to create national monuments on federal land to protect “objects of historic and scientific interest”.

Obama’s designation of the monuments emphasizes the environmental protections that conservation groups and legislators around the state had also wanted, but it lacks proposals to both maintain and build new roads and further develop the land as a national park and wilderness area. It is a stunning mosaic of rugged mountain ranges, ancient lava flows, and spectacular sand dunes. Castle Mountains National Monument – the smallest of the three – surrounds but does not include an open-pit mine that hasn’t been used since 2001 because of low gold prices. Almost a year ago, the President announced the launch of the Every Kid in a Park program to give every 4th grader in America free access to visit the country’s unparalleled public lands, and over the course of the next year, the Administration will continue to encourage all Americans to “find your park” and experience firsthand the wonder of America’s great outdoors. Named for the most pristine stretch of historic Route 66, with wide-open desert vistas, the lands in the national monument are habitat for threatened desert tortoises, iconic desert bighorn sheep and many other desert dwellers.

“The effort to preserve the California desert has been a long one, and today is a major milestone”, Feinstein said, according to the LA Times. “The designation highlights the exceptional natural and historic resources of the area, from Mojave Preserve to Lake Mead National Recreation Area, from Searchlight to Laughlin”. The White House said he has protected 265 million acres of public lands and waters, the most of any president.

The monuments, which California Senator Diane Feinstein has attempted to protect through Congress for years, are strongly supported by local elected officials, business owners, Native Americans, veterans, Latino organizations, faith leaders, sportsmen, and conservationists. Featuring thirty miles of the world famous Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, the area is a favorite for camping, hiking, hunting, horseback riding, photography, wildlife viewing, and even skiing.

In total, he has designated 22 national monuments.

I hope you’ll celebrate by getting outside and enjoying all our nation’s public lands have to offer, particularly the newest additions to our national conservation legacy. Obama’s designation comes at the request of Sen. Additionally, the designations complement an ongoing planning process for renewable energy development on public lands in the California desert and furthers the longstanding work with public land managers and local communities to protect these lands for future generations.

Much of the land was purchased more than a decade ago by private citizens and the Wildlands Conservancy, then donated to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in anticipation of its eventually receiving the protection of national monument status.