Trump targets two national monuments in California for elimination [View all]

Source: Washington Post

March 15, 2025 at 6:20 p.m. EDT


President Donald Trump plans to eliminate two massive national monuments in California established by former president Joe Biden, the White House confirmed Saturday. Less than a week before leaving office, Biden signed proclamations establishing the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California and the 224,000-acre Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in northern California. Native American tribes that consider these landscapes sacred had urged Biden to put them off-limits to drilling, mining, clean-energy development and other industrial activity.

The plan to repeal the proclamations, first reported by the New York Times, underscores how Trump has sought to dismantle Biden’s sweeping environmental legacy. The Environmental Protection Agency this week began the process of undoing Biden’s most consequential climate regulations, including rules aimed at speeding the nation’s shift to electric vehicles and slashing planet-warming emissions from power plants.

During his first term, Trump significantly shrank two national monuments in Utah. He slashed more than 1.9 million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments — known for their stunning desert vistas and wealth of Native American artifacts. It is unclear, however, whether Trump has the authority to abolish the proclamations outright. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to protect lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, including by establishing or expanding national monuments. But the law is silent on whether the president can remove the designation without congressional approval.

Adding to the confusion, a White House fact sheet released Friday night said Trump had signed an executive order “terminating proclamations declaring nearly a million acres constitute new national monuments that lock up vast amounts of land from economic development and energy production.” But that line had disappeared from the fact sheet by Saturday afternoon. The White House did not respond to requests for clarification.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/15/trump-national-monuments-california-chuckwalla/