Tuleyome's Policy Corner: Supporting California's National Monuments

Sandy Schubert • March 7, 2024

Wallflowers on Molok Luyuk

Currently, there are five National Monument proposals in California.

Tuleyome has been telling you a lot about the efforts to expand Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument by adding Molok Luyuk to the Monument. We hope you’ve signed our petition . If not, please do so now.

We’d also like share with you the four other California National Monument proposals that we hope you will support as well. All are public lands, are culturally significant and are critical habitats for biodiversity and achieving federal and state 30x30 goals (protecting 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030). Co-stewardship by tribes is a critical part of managing these lands.

Chuckwalla National Monument would encompass 660,000 acres parallel to Joshua Tree National Park to the south, and bounded by Chocolate Mountain Air Gunnery Range in the east and Interstate 10 from east Coachella Valley to the Colorado River. Located in Imperial and Riverside Counties, the Monument would include Ladder Canyon, Bradshaw Trail, Corn Springs Campsite and Painted Canyon Trail. It is home to amazing rock formations and close to the Salton Sea. Supported by conservationists and indigenous peoples, the Monument would be the largest protected area in the Colorado Desert Bioregion, a unique climate and bioregion. The landscape holds immense tribal historical and present day significance for the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples (Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mojave, Quechan and Serrano Nations).

The Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe is calling on President Biden to protect more than 390,000 acres of their ancestral homeland as Kw'tsán National Monument . Located in Imperial County, these public lands border the Tribe’s reservation and encompass the Indian Pass Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), Pilot Knob (Avikwalal), Singer Geoglyphs ACEC, Buzzards Peak and Picacho Peak Wilderness areas. The Colorado River borders the lands on the east. This Monument would also connect to Chuckwalla National Monument and Spirit Mountain in Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. Endangered species and native plants live, and depend, on these lands.

The designation of Sáttítla, Medicine Lake Highlands, National Monument by President Biden is being called for by the Pit River Nation. Nestled within the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc forests, and containing a designated Native American Traditional Cultural District, these 200,000 acres are culturally significant, geologically unique and water rich. Its aquifers store as much water as California’s 200 largest reservoirs and sustain millions of residents, agriculture and wildlife. The area has been sacred to numerous tribes who still use the area for ceremonies and gathering, including Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk and Wintu, since time immemorial.

A vast group of organizations and individuals is calling on President Biden to expand the San Gabriel National Monument by adding 109,000 acres of BLM and USFS public lands. The Monument would safeguard sacred spaces and cultural resources, expand equitable access to nature, protect critical wildlife habitat and is a key source of drinking water for the region. In fact, the Angeles National Forest provides one-third of Los Angeles County’s drinking water. Cultural resources include prehistoric archaeological sites as well as historic sites and landscapes. It would also protect the Mount Lowe Railway, which opened in 1893 to ferry residents from Pasadena to the top of Echo Mountain.

California is such a special place and these public lands are some of its most unique. Let’s all work together to protect them.

-Sandra Schubert; sschubert@tuleyome.org

Executive Director

Looking for more articles like this? Click the hashtag below!

RECENT ARTICLES

By Bryan Pride May 9, 2025
Across the country wildfires are increasingly more catastrophic; growing larger, spreading faster and burning longer than before. Nationwide, the total acres burned rose dramatically from 2.7 million in 2023 to nearly 9 million in 2024 . California is averaging more than 7,500 wildfires annually . Not including the recent Los Angeles fires, six of the top ten most destructive fires, three of the five deadliest fires, and all of the state's nine largest fires have occurred since 2017. It is unsustainable for both California and the country to continue burning at this magnitude. This leaves us with the question: "What can be done to solve the wildfire problem?" In response to this growing crisis, lawmakers are taking action. Congress is advancing different versions of the Fix Our Forests Act ( FOFA ) in the Senate and House of Representatives. How these bills progress and the opportunities to amend, change or improve these bills are constrained by the different processes in the House and the Senate. The House of Representatives The House of Representatives version of FOFA, (H.R. 471) , was introduced by Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR) in January 2025 with 43 bipartisan cosponsors, including several from California. With a stated goal to expedite forest management activities under NEPA. H.R. 471, it significantly reflects Executive Order 14225, "Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production" (March 1, 2025). While the legislation takes some important steps, there are also significant concerns regarding rollbacks of environmental protections and judicial review. FOFA , H.R. 471, establishes an interagency Fireshed Center overseen by the Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service comprised of 15 agencies, administrations, departments and bureaus to gather data, provide guidance and work with states and tribes. It sets up a process to designate “fireshed management areas” and expands projects exempt from full reviews from 3,000 – 10,000 acres. The bill heavily favors logging as a form of fire management, but also embraces prescribed burns and prioritizes reforestation and restoration projects. H.R. 471 grants numerous “categorical exclusions”, exempting areas and projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act. H.R. 471 also fast-tracks environmental review and consultation. At the same time, the Administration is significantly gutting personnel and expertise through DOGE and its budget. H.R. 471 alters the judicial process. H.R. 471 limits when a court can grant injunctive relief. What is injunctive relief? That is the ability of the court to say: “Stop doing what you are doing.” Or slow it down, or change it, while we figure this out. It is common. Removing it is unusual. H.R. 471 limits the court’s ability to order corrective actions, limits plaintiff’s ability to sue, limits the court’s ability to require additional data from an agency and allows the challenged activities to go forward while under review. H.R. 471 also decreases the statute of limitations (the time that someone has to sue) from 6 years to 120 days. Much concern was expressed over the expansion of categorical exclusions, the change in judicial review procedures and timelines and fast-tracking of proposals. However, there was no opportunity to address any of these issues. When a bill is introduced in the House of Representatives, much like in the Senate, it is assigned to a committee with subject matter expertise. Committees study bills, hold hearings and gather testimony from experts. Committees hold mark-up sessions to debate and make changes to the bill through amendments. When a House of Representatives Committee passes a bill, it sends the bill to the House Rules Committee. The House Rules committee determines the form of the bill, which amendments will be allowed, how long folks will have to speak, or not, and when the bill moves. The House Rules Committee is run by the party in power, by the majority party. The Rules Committee is heavily tilted to favor the majority party, giving it full control over the floor of the House or Representatives. The Rules Committee has nine members of the majority party, Republicans, and 4 members of the minority party, Democrats. There is no comparable Committee in the Senate. No committee hearings or mark-ups were held on H.R. 471. Only three amendments and only one hour of debate were allowed. In the House of Representatives, a simple majority vote is necessary for bill passage. In January 2025, the H.R. 471 passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 279-141 without a hearing or mark-up and with scant debate. In the Senate Now, attention has turned to the Senate, where Senators Curtis (R-UT), Hickenlooper (D-CO), Sheehy (R-MT) and Padilla’s (D-CA) version of FOFA , S. 1462 , introduced in April, is making its way through the Senate process. The bill’s stated goal is to improve forest management on BLM and USFS lands. Similar to the House of Representatives, when a bill is introduced in the Senate, it is assigned to a committee for study, hearings, expert testimony, a mark-up session and amendments. In fact, the Senate Agriculture Committee has already begun reviewing the legislation, holding a legislative hearing on S. March 6 . The next step will be a mark-up in committee, where we can expect to see robust debate. If the Committee decides to move forward with the bill, it sends it to the full Senate. If a committee does not send the bill to the Senate, the bill dies in committee. Once a bill is released from committee, the Majority Leader of the Senate is responsible for deciding when to send the legislation for a vote. There is no Rules Committee. At this stage of floor consideration and debate is when there is the most significant difference in the legislative process between the House and the Senate. During floor consideration, a senator or group of senators can exercise their right to unlimited debate through a filibuster, which can keep legislation off the floor indefinitely. Once a debate is closed through cloture, the Senate can move to a final vote on the bill, which requires a simple majority of 51 votes. A bill on the Senate floor requires only 51 votes to pass after a debate has ended, but it takes 60 votes to cut off debate through a process called "cloture." If 60 Senators vote in favor of ending the debate, it will move to a final vote. Because of the razor thin margin in the Senate – 53 Rs, 45 Ds and 2 Independents – Republicans will need Democrats to vote with them to stop debate and advance FOFA to a vote. The requirement for broader consensus often means that legislation passed by the Senate has undergone more compromise. This provides an opportunity for the minority party to shape the bill that is not present in the House of Representatives. Thus, the Senate version of FOFA, S. 1462 , represents a significant improvement over the House version. It too sets up “fireshed management areas” and calls for fireshed assessments, albeit based on different criteria than the House version. A centerpiece of S. 1462 is the establishment of Wildfire Intelligence Center staffed by wildfire experts, technical leads, and indigenous leaders and governed by a Board of 16 agencies, administrations, departments and bureaus. The legislation removes historical barriers that previously prevented foresters, fire teams, and indigenous communities from implementing these preventative practices, allowing for more proactive management across all phases of wildfire prevention, response, and recovery. These centers create opportunities for multifaceted approaches throughout the entire fire management cycle, from prevention to rapid response to restoration. The Senate version also retains more authority for environmental reviews and judicial action. While the S. 1462 retains greater environmental review under NEPA and the National Historic Preservation Act, it also rolls back ESA reviews of land management plans and other environmental reviews depending on acreage. S. 1462 too limits injunctive relief, although not as significantly as the House version. S. 1462 leaves untouched other aspects of judicial review. The Senate version of FOFA has garnered bipartisan support from leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as from California Governor Gavin Newsom, California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, and CAL Fire Director and Fire Chief Joe Tyler. Next Steps for the Legislation If the Senate passes a version of FOFA that is different from the House version, which is highly likely, a conference committee will be formed with members from both the House and the Senate to reconcile the differences. After the conference committee reaches agreement on a bill, both chambers must vote again to approve the reconciled bill before it can go before the President to be signed into law. Tuleyome will continue to keep you updated on the Fix Our Forests Act s. We hope to see real-time action and solutions to improve the fire resilience of our communities and our forests and improve forest health and wildfire management. Co-Authored by Bryan Pride and Sandra Schubert
May 9, 2025
I first heard about Tuleyome when I saw an ad for its California Certified Naturalist Class. I was recently retired and looking for a way to meet others and learn more about our natural environment. I met so many motivated advocates and eager learners in the class, and some have become good friends. Tuleyome focuses on a part of California I didn't know well. After completing the course I began participating in Naturalist class field trips, K-12 school outings, events, and Silver Spur Ranch camera maintenance trips. I love to help with the Naturalist class because I know the difference it made in my life. I also like turning kids and adults on to our special corner of California and the work Tuleyome is doing to preserve it. I make small regular donations now as an extension of my support for the mission. Tuleyome’s focus on a part of Northern California that is often overlooked resonates with me. It has been championing the inland coastal range and watersheds for protection, education, and wise use for 20+ years. I also appreciate how Tuleyome works with divergent spheres of interest, inspiring collaboration instead of conflict. Those partnerships have paid off locally, with Yolo County park development and Putah and Cache Creek watershed education and volunteer events. That’s an amazing legacy!  I want Tuleyome to succeed in their mission and that means supporting stability in staff and organizational resources. I figure every little bit helps.
By Kristie Ehrhardt May 9, 2025
May 2, 2025 marked one glorious year of Federal protection for the newest addition to the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument - Molok Luyuk! Just a year ago, President Biden used the Antiquities Act to expand the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument to include the mountainous ridge that runs along the eastern edge of the monument. Protecting Molok Luyuk, formally known as Walker Ridge, means that crucial wildlife migration corridors are protected and that biodiversity is safeguarded. Preserving Molok Luyuk provides an essential link between the existing monument and other protected areas for Black Bears, Mountain Lions and Tule Elk. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation gave the name Molok Luyuk and renaming it means returning an indigenous name to the ridge. Molok Luyuk is Patwin for “Condor Ridge” and it is located in Patwin heartland. Preserving the ridge means preserving significant ceremonial sites for the Miwok, Pomo and Wappo people as well as protecting vital, historic Tribal trading routes. The entire monument and much of the surrounding area is all part of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation’s vast ancestral lands. Molok Luyuk is a geologically unique area that presents 60-100 million years of history all within less than 14,00 acres. Plate tectonics has given rise to extraordinary biodiversity and the area has been called “perhaps the most accessible location” to see the unique geology of the entire Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. “A walk across Molok Luyuk is a walk through 100 million years of history.” Together with our conservation partners, Tuleyome invites you to help us celebrate this Momentous occasion by taking a trip to visit our favorite monument. The wildflowers are amazing! -Kristie Ehrhardt ( kehrhardt@tuleyome.org ) Tuleyome Land Conservation Program Manager