Healthy public lands
The California desert is home to three national park units; Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks, and Mojave National Preserve. The Bureau of Land Management oversees another 11 million acres, including the new Chuckwalla National Monument. But our public lands and the people who manage them for our benefit are in dire straits.
Tell Congress: Our public lands can’t take more cuts
Congress is planning disastrous budget cuts for our public lands. Contact your representatives today to stop their planned:
20% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency
5% cut to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4.4% cut to Bureau of Land Management
3.7% cut to U.S. Geological Survey
Move $134 million from National Park Service operations towards U.S. Park Police in the D.C. area
10.9% cut to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement
These reductions would dramatically harm the visitor experience at national parks, reduce visitor safety, and close campsites. They would stop recreation and restoration work within Bureau of Land Management lands and open our national forests to mining. They would stop work to safeguard vulnerable wildlife, and lead to the long-term degradation of public lands. We need you to take action TODAY to push back against these detrimental cuts. Contact Congress now using our quick action form to make your voice heard.
Tell Congress: Hands off our public lands!
Congress has initiated an action against Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that could have a ripple effect on monuments across the nation.
Members of the Utah congressional delegation have introduced a resolution that would dissolve the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's resource management plan (RMP). RMPs are carefully crafted plans involving in-depth public comment to ensure a strategy that balances access, recreation, and the preservation of these special places. These plans can take years to develop. If passed, the proposed legislation would reject years of input from tribes, hikers, campers, hunters, OHV drivers, anglers, grazers, and any other sectors of the public with an interest in our national monuments. This action would set a new precedent, exposing national monuments across the country to similar challenges and allowing partisan politics to determine uses of public lands rather than the communities that rely on them the most. Within the California desert, this uncertainty would affect the economies, landscapes, and biodiversity tied to national monuments like Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow, and Chuckwalla.
A vote is expected in Congress soon. Use our quick action form to tell your representatives you oppose any congressional attempt to overturn national monument resource management plans.
Protect Chuckwalla National Monument
Chuckwalla National Monument was designated on January 14, 2025 by President Joe Biden. It spans approximately 624,000 acres from the Coachella Valley region in the west to the Colorado River in the east. In establishing the national monument, President Biden recognized that the lands "hold extraordinarily diverse ecological, cultural, and historical value". The Mojave Desert Land Trust is proud to have served as part of the movement to designate this new desert national monument. These new public lands offer a beacon of hope for the future stability of one of North America’s strongholds of biodiversity.
