The waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration will include a visit to the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, amid reports that he plans to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument south of Joshua Tree National Park. Such a move would protect hundreds of thousands of acres from drilling, mining, solar energy development and other industrial activity in the Riverside County desert. White House officials announced the visit Friday morning, Jan. 3. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden plan to visit Los Angeles on Monday, Jan. 6, a news release also states. The president, who leaves office Monday, Jan. 20, is expected to sign a proclamation establishing the monument, according to published reports. The Washington Post, citing two sources who were briefed on the announcement, reported Biden’s plan to establish the monument. The paper also reported that Biden will also make a similar proclamation for land surrounding the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California.

Since taking office in 2021, Biden has used his executive authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create six new monuments and expand four others, the Post reported. By establishing Chuckwalla and Sáttítla, Biden will have protected more public lands than any president in a single term with the exception of Jimmy Carter, according to the Post. That stands in contrast to President-elect Donald Trump, who supports opening public lands for energy development. In his first term, Trump shrank two national monuments in Utah. If established, the monument — named for the lizard found in the Sonoran and Mojave Desert and northwestern Mexico — would protect almost 700,000 acres in eastern Riverside County and Imperial County. It would join other national monuments created in the past decade to preserve the Southern California desert and mountains. In 2016, President Barack Obama established the 154,000-acre Sand to Snow National Monument and the 1.6 million-acre Mojave Trails National Monument in San Bernardino County.

Bighorn sheep, golden eagles, desert tortoises and native plants live in the proposed monument area, which also includes land considered sacred by a number of Native American tribes. Having previously advocated in Washington, D.C., for Biden to issue such a designation, Southern California tribal leaders spoke in October about their desire to protect the homelands of the Iviatim, Nüwü, Pipa Aha Macav, Kwatsáan and Maara’yam peoples, also known as the Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Mohave (CRIT Mohave), Quechan and Serrano nations. “Since time immemorial, we have called the lands in the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument home,” Secretary Altrena Santillanes, of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, said. “These lands contain thousands of cultural places and objects of vital importance to the history and identity of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians.” Last year, at least two dozen members of the California congressional delegation, including Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Indio, and U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, called for Biden to preserve Chuckwalla.