The Castle Peaks in Mojave National Preserve as seen from Castle Mountains National Monument | Photo: Mason Cummings, The Wilderness Society
The White House has announced that three new National Monuments will be designated in the California Desert, covering almost two million acres of some of the wildest, most ecologically crucial landscapes remaining in the state. The monuments, which will be formally announced by President Obama on Friday, will fill in the blank spots in what is now a nearly unbroken chain of protected land stretching from the Southern California coast to the Colorado Plateau.
The monuments were originally proposed for protection in legislation written by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, who has been trying to shepherd the monuments through a recalcitrant Congress since 2009, asked the White House to wield his power under the 1906 Antiquities Act to protect the monuments if Congress wouldnt act.
The centerpiece of the designation, and of the Feinstein bills many different versions, is the 1.6-million-acre Mojave Trails National Monument, which stretches along more than 100 miles of the historic Route 66 between Barstow and Needles. Mojave Trails provides a critical wildlife linkage between the Mojave National Preserve and the 29 Palms Marine Corps Base, and through that land to Joshua Tree National Park to the south.
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In addition to Mojave Trails, the other new monuments are the approximately 154,000-acre Sand to Snow National Monument, which stretches from the northwestern Coachella Valley to San Gorgonio Peak and the borders of Joshua Tree National Park, and the nearly 21,000-acre Castle Mountains National Monument, surrounded on three sides by the Mojave National Preserve and on the fourth by the Nevada State Line near Searchlight.
We are extremely grateful to President Obama for his foresight and leadership to protect these remarkable and fragile places in the California desert, said Dan Smuts, Regional Director of the Wilderness Society, which was one of the groups supporting Feinsteins bill and the Antiquities Act designations. These national monuments not only protect important natural and cultural resources, but will also bring more visitors to hike, camp, and explore - which is great for the local economy. Moreover, they protect critical migration corridors that are essential for desert wildlife to adapt to a changing climate.
Danielle Segura, Executive Director of the Mojave Desert Land Trust, was quick to point out the benefits that will accrue to communities near the new National Monuments. We at Mojave Desert Land Trust have been truly inspired and energized by the myriad voices joining in support of protecting and connecting these landscapes. Our community has a deep appreciation and connection to our public lands that knows no boundaries. Our nations newest national monuments preserve uninterrupted landscapes, ecosystems and opportunities for future enjoyment, discovery and adaptation to a changing biosphere, Segura said.
The Sand to Snow National Monument will connect Joshua Tree National Park, in foreground, with the San Gorgonio Wilderness, in background | Photo: Chris Clarke | KCET
The choice to pursue Antiquities Act designation for the monuments meant that some lands Feinsteins bill would have protected were left out today. Under the Antiquities Act, the President can designate National Monuments, but he or she cannot effect land transfers between agencies, nor does the Antiquities Act allow designation of other protected statuses such as Wild and Scenic Rivers or Wilderness designation. The original bill crafted in 2009 would have designated four new Wild and Scenic Rivers in the California desert, established wildernesses and wilderness study areas, and transferred almost a thousand acres of BLM land near Anza Borrego Desert State Park to the State Parks system.
The Feinstein bill would also have added around 65,000 acres to the three desert National Parks in California, and established an Alabama Hills National Scenic Area near Lone Pine.
More controversially among environmentalists, the bill would also have established a system of federally designated off-road vehicle recreation areas throughout the desert, a provision that kept the bill from being fully supported by a few organizations, the Sierra Club among them.
None of those non-monument designations proposed in Feinsteins bill will be reflected in the designation announced today, though the Senators bill would have added whats now the Castle Mountains National Monument to the Mojave National Preserve. In that sense, Republican opposition to the bill may have ended up shooting one of the partys key desert constituencies in the foot, by making it far less likely that those off-road areas would ever be given formal Federal status.
The Marble Mountains in Mojave Trails National Monument, with the Mojave Preserves Granite Mountains in the distance | Photo: Chris Clarke | KCET
Born of the Renewable Land Rush
Much of the original impetus for todays designation can be found in the first weeks of the Obama administration, when a confluence of a Bush-era energy development law covering public lands and a new, more renewable-energy friendly White House spurred a renewable energy gold rush on the lands now designated as National Monuments. Thats especially true for the sprawling Mojave Trails, much of which was acquired in earlier years by the Wildlands Conservancy and transferred to the Bureau of Land Management for conservation. When renewable energy development proposals started popping up on some of the lands the Wildlands Conservancy had bought, the group turned to Feinstein for help.
Feinstein was a logical choice: in her first term as Senator, shed shepherded an earlier desert protection bill championed by retiring Senator Alan Cranston to passage as the Deser
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The Castle Peaks in Mojave National Preserve as seen from Castle Mountains National Monument | Photo: Mason Cummings, The Wilderness Society 
