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.
Keep public lands fully funded
The 2025 One Big, Beautiful Bill Act brought deep cuts to land management agencies. January’s 2026 budget saw across-the-board cuts to public lands management agencies. Congress is still considering even more massive defunding proposals for our public lands and waters. A second budget reconciliation, the process used to pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act with a slim majority, is planned for this spring. Severe cuts, layoffs, and attempts at a public lands selloff are on the table.
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.
