The Mecca Hills will be part of the new Chuckwalla National Monument that Joe Biden is set to proclaim, as he looks to cement his environmental legacy in the last few days of his presidency.
By AFP -Agence France Presse
With an eye on green legacy, Biden declares new US national monuments
Joe Biden is set to designate two new US national monuments - sprawling parks - in California as he seeks to secure his environmental legacy in the final days of his presidency.
Shortly before Donald Trump moves into the White House, the 82-year-old will proclaim the 252,000-hectare Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, the White House said on Tuesday.
The measure will protect the area from drilling, mining, solar farms, and other industrial activities, and comes after lobbying by Native American tribes who have used the land for millennia.
Biden will also create the 224,000-acre Sattitla National Monument in the far north of the state, on the Oregon border, offering that area the same environmental safeguards.
Biden, who was in California on Tuesday, was scheduled to announce the new designations during a side trip to the Coachella Valley, but high winds - which fueled a major wildfire near Los Angeles - caused him to postpone the announcement.
The announcement will now be made at a ceremony at the White House next week.
“The stunning canyons and winding roads of Chuckwalla National Monument represent a beauty that is truly unparalleled,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American woman to hold the position of cabinet secretary.
“I was honored to visit this area to explore and meet with federal, state, tribal, and local leaders to hear about the need to protect and conserve this sacred area.”
The new designation “will protect important spiritual and cultural values connected to the land and wildlife. I am very grateful that future generations will have the opportunity to experience what makes this area so unique,” Haaland said.
Biden's four-year term has seen the creation of eight other national monuments and the expansion of four others.
The latest measure will mean he has conserved more land and water than any other US president, the White House said.
On Monday, he signed an executive order banning offshore drilling in a huge area of coastal waters, covering the entire Atlantic coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Pacific coast in California, Oregon, and Washington, and a section of the Bering Sea in Alaska.
Trump reduced the size of national monuments during his first term in the White House, and environmentalists fear that the next four years could see a similar reduction in the protected status of public lands as the Republican seeks to expand fossil fuel extraction.
Biden's proclamations are the latest in a series of last-minute climate policy actions that seem intended to thwart what environmentalists fear will be the wrecking ball of another Trump presidency.
In mid-December, the outgoing administration issued an ambitious new climate target under the landmark Paris Agreement, committing the United States to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 61% to 66% below 2005 levels by 2035, on the way to achieving net zero by 2050.
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