Law & Order

President Obama Designates Three National Monuments in California Desert

By SEMA Washington, D.C., Staff

President Obama has designated three new national monuments located in California’s Mojave Desert. The Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains National Monuments total 1.8 million acres, and are located between Palm Springs and the Nevada state border.

SEMA opposes this action since national monuments automatically prohibit new roads or trails for motorized vehicles and require a new land management plan be drafted that could lead to more road closures. SEMA supports a collaborative approach to land-use decisions, including input from local citizens, elected leaders and other stakeholders on national monument designations. Accordingly, SEMA has worked to advance a bill in the U.S. Congress that would curtail the President’s power to unilaterally designate national monuments by requiring their approval by Congress and the impacted state legislature(s).  

For more information on this and other land-use issues, visit the SEMA Action Network (SAN) website. For details, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.