Padilla Secures Commitment From Senior Interior Nominee to Protect Chuckwalla National Monument

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) secured a commitment from Stevan Pearce, nominee for Bureau of Land Management Director at the Department of the Interior, to protect California’s Chuckwalla National Monument amid the Trump Administration’s efforts to abolish protections for America’s public lands. During today’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Padilla highlighted Pearce’s concerning voting record on public lands as a former New Mexico U.S. Representative and pushed him to honor the monument designation for these sacred, ecologically significant lands in California’s eastern Imperial and Riverside counties.
Padilla emphasized that the monument has broad, bipartisan support. The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) have also formed the Chuckwalla National Monument Intertribal Commission to sustain their lasting commitment to safeguard these sacred lands. Padilla secured Pearce’s commitment, if confirmed, to meet with the Intertribal Commission to learn more about the monument and engage in meaningful Tribal consultation.
Excerpts from Padilla’s exchange with Pearce are available below.
Key Excerpts:
Video of the exchange is availablehere.
Senator Padilla led the charge toestablishthe Chuckwalla National Monument. Padilla, Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), former California Senator Laphonza Butler, and Representative Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.-25)urged President Bidento use his authority under theAntiquities Act of 1906to designate the monument. Padilla, Butler, and Ruiz alsointroduced legislationto push for its establishment.
The Chuckwalla National Monument protects over 624,000 acres of California’s vast desert landscape. The monument designation protects important spiritual and cultural values tied to the land such as multi-use trail systems established by Indigenous peoples, sacred sites and objects, traditional cultural places, geoglyphs, petroglyphs, pictographs, and native plants and wildlife. It also provides more equitable access to nature for eastern Coachella Valley communities and surrounding areas.
Last year, Padillacondemneda Department of Justicelegal opinionthat could pave the way for the Trump Administration to eliminate or shrink California’s recently established national monuments, Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands.
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