Federal offices were flooded with applications to place solar mirrors across the arid flatlands of southeastern California, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein was not going to let that stop her from protecting the heart of the Mojave Desert from development.

Some of those projects were headed toward fruition when Feinstein in 2009 announced plans to introduce bills to establish national monuments on roughly 1 million acres of public lands that are home to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs.

Her campaign to create the monuments amid the unfolding desert land rush turned out to be a lengthy one, held up for years by conflicts among environmentalists, off-roaders, hunters and renewable energy interests.

Ultimately, she prevailed. President Obama in 2016 designated three new national monuments in the California desert, expanding protection to 1.8 million acres of Mojave Desert landscape.

Joshua trees rise from the desert floor as a snow-capped San Jacinto Peak looms in the distance at Joshua Tree National Park in January 2022.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Sen. Feinstein had a passion for the Mojave Desert — and everything in it,” said David Myers, president of the Wildlands Conservancy and a longtime friend of Feinstein, who died on Friday. “It stirred her soul: the wildlife, the sand dunes, the wind, the people who worked the land — the old California romance with backcountry roads of adventure and enchantment.”

“I visited the Mojave several times with Sen. Feinstein and her husband,” he recalled. “She was comfortable there. Wore no makeup. Absorbed the wonders of it all.

“She was a defender of the California desert like no other.”

Obama’s designation of the monuments was requested by Feinstein, who for a decade had sought to protect land that wasn’t included in the 1994 California Desert Protection Act. That measure, which she authored, covered nearly 7.8 million acres, elevated Death Valley and Joshua Tree to national park status, and created Mojave National Preserve.

A photographer hikes the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park in December 2014.

(Los Angeles Times)

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Feinstein had initially asked Obama in 2014 to use his authority to create the protected zones, without approval of Congress, to break a logjam of interests that had stalled her previous bills.

Her effort came on the heels of Obama’s designation earlier that year of much of Angeles National Forest as a national monument. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) had urged Obama to act after Congress appeared unwilling to approve her legislation to create a national recreation area to address problems in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Earlier this year, Feinstein supported a request by Chu and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) for President Biden to add 109,167 acres to San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

The move would increase the monument by roughly a third and extend its boundaries to the back door of San Fernando Valley neighborhoods including Sylmar, Santa Clarita and Pacoima. It would also give the U.S. Forest Service greater ability to protect natural resources and manage crowds in areas left out of the 2014 monument designation by then-President Obama.

“California has lost a true champion for our state,” Chu said.

A desert spiny lizard clings to twigs at Joshua Tree National Park in September and 2022.

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Presidents dating back to Theodore Roosevelt have invoked the Antiquities Act to sidestep Congress to protect areas of historic or scientific interest.

Such action, however, is nearly always controversial, with critics saying the designations unreasonably limit logging, grazing, mining and other activities across wide swaths of the West.

In California, the development of solar-power facilities in the desert had been a top priority of the Obama administration as it sought to ease the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and curb global warming.

Companies were racing to finalize their permits, which would qualify them to obtain some of the $15 billion in federal stimulus funds designated for renewable energy projects. At stake was the creation of 48,000 jobs and enough new energy to power almost 1.8 million homes, officials said at the time.

Despite fierce political and economic headwinds, Obama in 2016 designated the three new national monuments Feinstein had requested: Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow, and Castle Mountains.

A giant rock formation occupies White Tank Campground in Joshua Tree National Park.

(Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)

Much of the land had been purchased more than a decade earlier by private citizens and Myers’ Wildlands Conservancy, then donated to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in anticipation of its eventually receiving the protection of national monument status.

A post-designation ceremony held in the Oval Office was “one of my proudest moments in conservation,” Myers said. “They had us pose for a photograph — Sen. Feinstein was on Obama’s left, and I was on his right.”

“President Obama pulled us closer to him for the photo,” he added, “then smiled and said, ‘We’re all friends here, right?’ ”

The Department of Justice is redoubling its efforts to secure a gag order on former President Donald Trump, citing his comments about the death penalty and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. 

DOJ prosecutors made a request for a gag order earlier this month, claiming that the former president could affect the legal procedure with his aggressive public statements. 

This request has been amplified by prosecutors after Trump wrote a series of accusations on platform Truth Social, criticizing Milley’s reported phone call to Chinese counterparts following the Jan. 6, 2021 protests.

TRUMP DEMANDS COURT IGNORE DOJ REQUEST FOR GAG ORDER

Trump wrote that Milley “turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads-up on the thinking of the President of the United States.”

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!” the former president added.

Special counsel Jack Smith is pushing harder for the gag order following Trump’s comments about Milley.

TRUMP COMMENT ABOUT PUNISHING GEN. MILLEY WITH ‘DEATH’ CAUSES MAJOR OUTCRY FROM GOP RIVALS

Jack Smith, US special counsel, speaks during a news conference in Washington, DC. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“The defendant should not be permitted to continue to try this case in the court of public opinion rather than in the court of law, and thereby undermine the fairness and integrity of this proceeding,” prosecutors argued Friday.

The Trump team has vehemently fought requests for a gag order, claiming that it would be a violation of the former president’s civil rights.

The Trump legal team published a 25-page brief to condemn the DOJ’s request, citing freedom of speech and the necessity of transparency.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

“The prosecution would silence President Trump, amid a political campaign where his right to criticize the government is at its zenith, all to avoid a public rebuke of this prosecution. However, ‘above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content,’” the brief states.

During a campaign stop at a Westwood ice cream parlor Friday, former President Trump said he may attend his civil trial that begins Monday in New York that will determine the size of his penalty, as much as $250 million, for overstating the value of assets to get better loan terms.

“I may,” he said, while greeting cheering supporters at a Carvel shop. “It’s a disgrace. Everything about [New York City] is rigged. It’s all rigged. This whole country is rigged.”

New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James has charged Trump, his business and his two adult sons with overstating the value of their assets. The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, found Trump fraudulently liable Tuesday of overvaluing his properties on financial statements and stripped him and other executives of control of the businesses.

Trump did not respond to questions about whether he plans to testify, but he lashed out at the judge and James. The attorney general said this week that Trump is on the list of possible witnesses in the case.

Trump made the remarks to reporters Friday afternoon after delivering a raucous, hour-and-a-half-long speech at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim.

Asked about Gen. Mark A. Milley’s retirement ceremony comments Friday that he is loyal to the Constitution, not a “wannabe dictator,” Trump reiterated criticism he made about the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last week that drew widespread condemnation that he was inciting violence.

Trump had suggested in a social media post last week that Milley should be executed for making back-channel calls to a Chinese general in the waning months of Trump’s presidency, as he sought to quell Chinese fears of potential conflict and instability.

“It is really treasonous. If you look at what he said to China, he’s either stupid or it’s treason,” Trump said. “What he said to China should never be allowed.”

Milley told CBS News this week that he was taking measures to protect his family.

Trump offered sympathy to the family of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died early Friday morning.

“Well, it’s too bad. She was a nice woman,” Trump said. “I knew her actually fairly well. We got along — different persuasions — but we knew her fairly well. So we wish her family the best.”

Asked whether he would like to run against California Gov. Gavin Newsom in next year’s presidential contest, Trump responded, “I’d love it.”

“What could be better than [President] Biden, but I’d love Newsom if that works out,” he added. “I think Biden is trying to limp along and try and get there. But it could be Newsom, it could be one of three or four other people.”

Newsom has said repeatedly he has no plans to run for president in 2024.