Lawsuit seeks to undo Biden’s creation of Chuckwalla National Monument in Riverside County

In the final days of his term in the White House, President Joe Biden designated more than 600,000 acres of desert east of the Coachella Valley as the Chuckwalla National Monument.

But a recently filed lawsuit aims to overturn that designation, accusing Biden-as well as others who designated areas throughout the country at national monuments-of being too broad in scope when creating monuments hundreds of thousands of acres in size.

“They keep using (national monuments) to fill in all the empty spaces on the map,” said Ben Burr, the executive director of the BlueRibbon Coalition, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Burr is also concerned that access to recreational areas within the monument will be restricted, because now off-road vehicle use will be restricted to federally designated roads.

“I think the occasional visit by someone in a jeep isn’t going to hurt it that much. I think we should celebrate that, and in a lot of cases that’s going to be someone who has a disability and isn’t able to get out there any other way.”

But Janessa Goldbeck, who is the CEO of a veteran’s rights group called the Vet Voice Foundation, said its important to protect the status of the national monument, not only because of the existing wildlife, but also because it encompasses the area where soldiers trained under General Patton during World War II.

“What it really does is it provides permanent protections for historical sites that are on the landscape,” said Goldbeck.

“It’s not just about providing more protections for all the incredible nature that’s out there, but allowing people to recreate in a way that preserves the landscape and all the historical artifacts for future generations.”

Goldbeck also questions the motives of the group that filed the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit has been filed by a Texas special interest group, trying to undo something that Californians like me love and fought for,” said Goldbeck. “So we see it as an ideological attempt by out of state special interests to sell off California public lands and we’re standing up and fighting back.”

Historically, the first designation of a national monument came in 1906, when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act. The lawsuit alleges that while some of the first monuments were between 160 and 1,150 acres, over time various Presidents began creating larger monuments.

“The Constitution gave certain powers to the president for a reason,” said Burr. “And managing parcels of land in the Chuckwalla desert in California is very different than being the commander in chief of the national military.”

Burr said he’s hopeful the Supreme Court will eventually weigh in on the issue.

“Having some permanent certainty about this issue, whether the president has the power to abuse this act probably at someday needs to be settled by the Supreme Court.”