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| Ladder Canyon in the new Cuckwall National Monument Ed, Lynn, and I have hiked here. |
New monuments, in particular, are often designated to protect areas of importance to Indians. Note the Cahuilla Indians of the low desert - including those in Palm Springs, are known as the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians - prefer the word Indian to Native American.
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| Image from the new Sáttítla National Monument |
Anywho, there is a very large new National Monument between the Palm Springs area and a desert swath of land along I-10 in the desert (for those that know the area). With this action, most of the Southern California deserts are protected or areas dedicated to growth. Given that almost no one lives in these places, but they are significant to the Indians, it is reasonable to carve these areas out.
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| You can select the image to enlarge and read it. Note that the pink areas are set aside for development. Checkered pink is where development can occur with restrictions. |
The counterargument is that many of these new sites have minerals (or grazing) that are important to national security and, therefore, NOT protect it from development. In all of these cases, private companies that might profit from exclusive minerals leases tend of lobby against national monuments. Even though some kind of non-invasive extraction is allowed in most national monuments. They just can't strip-mine or destroy the land.
For example, in the image above, the pink checked areas are set aside for mineral development, primarily lithium.
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| Another hike and view in new Chuckwalla National Park |
Anyway, it is cool. Now, President Trump might reduce it as he did last administration with the Bear Ears National Monument to open the area for strip-mining uranium. Hopefully, this won't happen.
The locations:
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