Gray Pine cone and serpentine, Molok Luyuk NM expansion                                                                                (Mike Painter)

 
February 8, 2024

Dear CalUWild Friends & Supporters—

I hope your new year is off to a good start.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to CalUWild’s Annual Membership Appeal. Your generosity is much appreciated. And if you didn’t get around to making a contribution, it’s never too late—information is at the bottom of this (and every) Update. As always, contributions are voluntary, and we’re grateful for gifts of any size.

2024 looks to be a busy year ahead for public lands advocates as the Biden Administration wraps up its (first?) term. The fourth year tends to be one where many proclamations are made, though Pres. Biden has already designated several national monuments. All indications are that there will be more in the year ahead, but we do need to continue to show support for them.

With that in mind, this edition of the Monthly Update is a little different, focusing only on the current proposals in California (most of which we’ve covered before, but it’s worthwhile having all the information in one place). The Update is also coming out a little later than usual, because we wanted to include the announcement for the proposed Kw’tsán National Monument in Imperial County. We will have information on some monument proposals in other states in our next Update, too. So stay tuned!

2024 is also the 60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, so there will be special events around the country commemorating it. We will try to include information about them as the year goes on.

Thank you for your continued interest and support of our wild areas and other public lands.

 
Best wishes,
Mike Painter, Coordinator

 
IN CALIFORNIA
1.    Proposals for Five National Monuments
         (ACTION ITEM)
         a.   Kw’tsán
         b.   Chuckwalla
         c.   San Gabriel Mountains Expansion
         d.   Berryessa Snow Mountain / Molok Luyuk Expansion
         e.   Sáttítla-Medicine Lake Highlands

IN CALIFORNIA
1.    Proposals for Five National Monuments
         (ACTION ITEM)

There are currently five active national monument campaigns underway in California—three to establish new monuments and two hoping to expand existing ones. One of the exciting aspects of these proposals is that all are being led by California Tribes or have significant Tribal involvement.

While legislation has been introduced in Congress for some of them, given the complete dysfunction of Congress, we are hoping for presidential proclamations for each. But the Administration needs to see a steady flow of public support, so the various campaigns are asking people to sign petitions on their websites. (There is a direct link to each Petition in every item below.) The signature counts from them are regularly submitted to the Interior Department and White House Council on Environmental Quality, along with letters from local public officials, newspaper articles and editorials, and other support materials. (Being part of broader campaigns, these petitions are different from many of the stand-alone online petitions people are often asked to sign, which we generally discourage, as they tend not to be very effective.)

Because the number of items, we’re only giving brief backgrounds on each. Please visit the websites linked in the subsections for more details on each.

The coordinated California campaign is also asking supporters to send one letter to Pres. Biden, first thanking him for the national monuments he’s already designated and then asking him to designate all five monuments, using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Please mention all of the California proposed monuments by name in your letter, and if you have visited or have a special connection to any of them, mention that as well.

Submit your letter online to the White House at

and then COPY and PASTE the text and include your name, city, and state into an email, so we can include it in the formal Support Book being sent to the Interior Department and others in the Administration. Thanks!

 
The Los Angeles Times published an editorial: Biden should protect more of California’s mountains and deserts as national monuments. (does not seem to be behind a paywall)

 
Going from south to north in the state, the proposals are:

         a.    Kw’tsán

This is the most recently-announced campaign, with the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe calling on President Biden to protect more than 390,000 acres of the Tribe’s homelands located in Imperial County as the Kw’tsán National Monument. These lands, currently managed by the Bureau of Land Management, contain incredible cultural, ecological, recreational, scenic, and historic values that the Tribe is asking be preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.

You may read the tribe’s announcement here. The campaign website is https://www.protectkwtsan.org/, and a fact sheet is here.

 
         b.   Chuckwalla

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-25) has introduced legislation to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument in the Coachella Valley and expand Joshua Tree National Park. The area stretches from the Salton Sea to the Colorado River, covering about 600,000 acres, and is an area rich in biodiversity, is a culturally significant Tribal landscape, and contains more recent historically significant sites. For more information, visit the homepage at https://protectchuckwalla.org/.

 
          c.   San Gabriel Mountains Expansion

The proposal would add 109,000 acres to the western edge of the existing San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, designated by Pres. Obama in 2014. The area of the proposed expansion is one of the most heavily-visited areas of the Angeles National Forest and is also the headwaters for the Los Angeles River, an important source of drinking water for LA. For more information, visit the homepage at https://sangabrielmountainsforever.org

 
         d.   Berryessa Snow Mountain / Molok Luyuk Expansion

The proposal would add the almost 14,000 acres of the currently-named Walker Ridge along the eastern edge of the existing monument and rename it Molok Luyuk, “Condor Ridge” in the Patwin language. The area is rich in Indigenous significance, both sacred and as a crossroads of trading routes for many California tribes. Its complex tectonic geology and accompanying serpentine soils make it home to many rare and specialized plants, with spectacular wildflower displays in the spring. It is also home to many wildlife species. Finally, the landscape itself is spectacular, with vistas stretching from Mt. Shasta in the north to Mt. Diablo and Mt. Tamalpais in the south, the Sierra Nevada to the east, and the Inner Coast Range to the west.

For more information, visit https://www.expandberryessa.org.

 
In the California Legislature, on January 18, Senator Bill Dodd (SD-3), Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire (AD-2), and Assembly Majority Leader Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (AD-4) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 10 urging the White House to expand Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to include Molok Luyuk and to rename the new portion to reflect its cultural significance to the region’s Native American tribes. Sen. Dodd’s press release can be accessed here.

Supporting them are our Congressional champions, Sen. Alex Padilla (D) and Reps. John Garamendi (D-8) and Mike Thompson (D-4).

Please show your support for the Resolution by signing on to the support letter here by February 14th!!

 
         e.   Sáttítla-Medicine Lake Highlands

In the northeast corner of the state lies Sáttítla, known in English as the Medicine Lake Highlands. It’s an area of great cultural significance to the Pit River Tribe, who is spearheading the campaign for protection, but it is also important to other Tribes as well, including the Karuk, Modoc, Shasta, and the Wintu. The Highlands are in the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, and Modoc national forests and have long been the subject of proposals for geothermal development. Establishment of a monument would protect it from these threats as well as allowing the various Tribes to continue their traditional cultural practices. For more information visit https://www.protectmedicinelakehighlands.org/.

 
The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on the Sáttítla-Medicine Lake National Monument proposal: California’s next national monument could be this remote volcanic landscape (gift link for non-subscribers)

 
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
2.   Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest

If a link is broken or otherwise inaccessible, please send me an email, and I’ll fix it or send you a PDF copy. Gift links are temporary links from some websites, allowing non-subscribers to view articles for free for a limited time. As always, inclusion of an item in this section does not imply agreement with the viewpoint expressed.

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