Biden to Designate Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments in California

President Biden will travel on Tuesday to the Coachella Valley in California to announce the creation of two national monuments that together will protect more than 848,000 acres of land in the state from drilling and mining as well as wind, solar and other energy development.

According to the White House, one site in the mountains near Joshua Tree National Park will be designated the Chuckwalla National Monument. The other, in the woodlands north of Mount Shasta near the Oregon border, will be the Sáttítla National Monument.

The proclamation caps a flurry of final environmental proclamations that Mr. Biden has issued in his final days in office. On Monday, he banned future oil and gas drilling in more than 600 million acres of U.S. waters. Last week, the administration barred oil, gas and geothermal development in Nevada’s high alpine Ruby Mountain and also prevented mining and geothermal leasing in 20,000 acres of the Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota.

With Tuesday’s announcement, Mr. Biden will have protected more than 674 million acres of public lands and federal waters, more than any president. In creating the Chuckwalla monument, the administration has effectively carved out a 600-mile wildlife corridor of protected lands along the Colorado River and into the deserts of California.

Mr. Biden has established 10 national monuments, expanded two others and restored three more. He used the Antiquities Act, a 1906 law that authorizes the president to protect lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans.

Elsewhere in California, he expanded the San Gabriel Mountains and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monuments to protect land of cultural significance to Native American tribes, property that also serves as biodiversity and wildlife corridors.