President Joe Biden is signing off on two new national Native American monuments in California that will ban drilling on 849,000 acres of land.

Chuckwalla National Monument will sit in the south and Sáttítla National Monument in the north of the state.

Why It Matters

Biden is using the final weeks of his presidency to build on long-established policy targets, in this instance conserving at least 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through his “America the Beautiful” initiative. The Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments join a growing list of protected areas under Biden’s administration.

However, this isn’t the first environmentally-charged proposition to come from the Biden administration during his last month in power—on Monday, he announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters.

President-elect Donald Trump claims last-minute calls like this only serve to make their power transition more complicated.

What We Know

The White House emphasized that these monuments will protect water resources, preserve culturally significant sites, and ensure access to nature for communities.

The designations block development activities such as mining and drilling, safeguarding ecosystems that are home to diverse plant and animal species.

Both monuments will be co-stewarded with tribes, enhancing tribal sovereignty and involvement in land management, continuing a trend of comanagement that began with Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument.

Why the Land is Important to Native Americans

The Chuckwalla National Monument covers 624,000 acres in Southern California, spanning from the Coachella Valley to the Colorado River. Sáttítla National Monument includes 225,000 acres of pristine landscapes in Northern California.

Native Americans revere the land because of its deep cultural and spiritual importance, including the Cahuilla, Mohave, Pit River, and Modoc tribes.

Sáttítla is near California’s northern border with Oregon. It encompasses mountain woodlands, meadows, and habitats for rare wildlife. Chuckwalla National Monument, named after the large desert lizard native to the region, protects public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park.

What People Are Saying

President and CEO of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land Carrie Besnette Hauser said the designation of the monuments “marks a historic step toward protecting lands of profound cultural, ecological and historical significance for all Americans.”

A statement from Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe read: “The protection of the Chuckwalla National Monument brings the Quechan people an overwhelming sense of peace and joy [ …] tribes being reunited as stewards of this landscape is only the beginning of much-needed healing and restoration, and we are eager to fully rebuild our relationship to this place.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, told Newsweek in an email [regarding the ban on offshore oil and gas drilling]: “It’s despicable what Joe Biden is doing, and he is going against the will of the people who gave President Donald Trump a historic mandate to Make America Great Again.”

Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social “Biden is doing everything possible to make the TRANSITION as difficult as possible, from Lawfare such as has never been seen before, to costly and ridiculous Executive Orders on the Green New Scam and other money wasting Hoaxes.”

What’s Next

With Biden’s term nearing its end, additional conservation announcements may follow as the administration seeks to solidify its environmental legacy.

Trump appears determined to unravel that, declaring on Monday to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that, after he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20, Biden’s drilling ban will “be changed on day one.”

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press

President Biden is creating two new national monuments in California on Tuesday, preserving the lands from development and setting a record for the most land and waters conserved by any president, the White House said.

The Sáttítla Highlands National Monument covers more than 224,000 acres in Northern California, and includes the ancestral homelands of the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples. A dormant volcano is at its center, and it is home to the longest-known lava tube system in the world.

The Chuckwalla National Monument covers more than 624,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, and includes sacred sites important to five groups of indigenous peoples and 50 rare species of plants and animals, including the Chuckwalla lizard.

The Chuckwalla monument is part of a corridor of protected lands stretching about 600 miles west through a total of close to 18 million acres in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah that the White House is calling the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor.

In total, the White House said Biden protected 674 million acres of land and waters through monuments and other designations during his four years in office.

(Bloomberg) — Exceptionally powerful, dry winds expected across Southern California this week are set to send wildfire risk skyrocketing in a region that’s endured more than eight months without significant rain.

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Forecasters predict the strongest Santa Ana wind event of the season will start Tuesday and extend late into the week. As offshore winds race down local mountain ranges, they’ll bring gusts of up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) per hour to densely-populated communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, putting more than 4.5 million residents at risk, according to the US Storm Prediction Center. Downtown Los Angeles hasn’t seen more than a half-inch of rain since April, according to National Weather Service data.

“This is one of those patterns that make the hair stand up a little bit,” said climatologist Daniel Swain at the University of California Los Angeles, who called the event an “atmospheric blow dryer.” The winds, he said Monday, would be strong enough to topple trees and power lines, block roads, trigger blackouts and cancel flights at airports. “This will probably affect more people more substantially than a major rainstorm.”

In a post on X Monday, forecasters for the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned of “life-threatening, destructive” winds in areas not typically affected by Santa Ana events. Some of the region’s most affluent and exclusive communities — such as Beverly Hills and Malibu — are included.

In some mountain passes and foothill communities, gusts could reach 100 mph, drying the air and pushing humidity levels as low as 4%, said Nick Nauslar with the US Storm Prediction Center.

“That’s going to continue for two, three, perhaps four days,” said Nauslar, the center’s fire weather science and operations officer. With this combination of factors, he said, “you’re getting into the upper echelon of Santa Ana wind events in the last couple decades.”

Months without rain have parched the Southern California landscape, leaving dry grasses, shrubs and trees that can fuel wildfires. The amount of moisture stored inside local vegetation — which can prevent it from burning — is now “well below normal and approaching record low for this time of year,” Nauslar said.

Red flag fire warnings have been issued for much of the Los Angeles area and its suburbs. But high winds will extend far beyond the city, with strong gusts expected from Shasta County in far northern California all the way to the Mexican border. Wind advisories were also posted for the hills above the San Francisco Bay Area wine country, which has suffered a series of devastating fires in recent years.

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