Doubts Grow on Biden Naming California Monument Sites

Doubts are growing about whether President Joe Biden will act on bids for new national monuments in northern California before he leaves office in January.

Time is not only running out for him to make a move to offer protective status for the sites, one of which is in the Sierra Nevada south of Yosemite National Park and the other in the volcanic highlands northeast of Mount Shasta, but opposition to the projects is growing, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

President-elect Donald Trump's return to Washington also could stop the plans for the Range of Light Monument in the Sierra Nevada or Sáttítla National Monument near Shasta.

During his first term, Trump undid several monuments designated by his predecessors and he could do that again in his second term.

The Biden administration has not spoken publicly about plans for the sites. Presidents can designate new monument sites under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Biden has established six monuments and restored or expanded four more, enacting more than any president since Jimmy Carter.

The Sáttítla monument, also known as Medicine Lake Highlands, is the one seen as more likely to be designated.

The Pit River Tribe presented a proposal to the administration calling for roughly 200,000 acres of geologically distinct lands in Siskiyou and Modoc counties to be designated. The site features lava flows and Medicine Lake, sitting inside the crater of a large volcano.

The tribe has long used the area for prayer and rituals, as have other Native American groups.

The Indigenous community has fought against geothermal development in the area and hopes that the creation of a national monument will protect it from being used for industry. The U.S. Forest Service is expected to continue managing the area if it becomes a monument.

Groups representing the timber industry, however, protest the designation, writing a letter to the White House to say new restrictions will hurt commercial logging. Further, they said the new rules would make it more difficult for the Forest Service to enforce work to thin trees and ensure the safety of wildlife.

The Range of Light monument, meanwhile, was spearheaded 10 years ago by Deanna Lynn Wulff, executive director of the conservation group Unite the Parks. It would link Yosemite National Park with Kings Canyon National Park through protected mountains. Its name comes from John Muir's description of the range, which features some of the High Sierra's most scenic views.

Federal legislation is stalled on the Unite the Parks monument plan.

It calls for the National Park Service to take control of 1.4 million protected acres that are now overseen by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, with most of the land constituting the Sierra National Forest.

Biden could opt to keep the region under its existing controllers.

The federal lands, though, are already being used for logging, mineral extraction, and grazing, but those would be phased out with monument designation, which many of the region's residents oppose.

They cite concerns about economic losses, as well as the fears that the designation could limit public access.

The proposal does not prohibit fishing, hunting, or off-road vehicles, and allows people who own cabins in the property's boundaries to keep using them.

Opponents, though, worry that the federal government could change its guidelines.

Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig also said he's worried about fire safety and has joined with supervisors in Madera and Mariposa counties to write to Biden to oppose the plans.

Monument proposals are also being pitched to Biden for locations in Southern California: Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree and Kw’tsán National Monument on the California-Mexico border.