Trump Administration Wants to Open Chuckwalla National Monument to Mining

Outdoors enthusiasts and environmental groups are alarmed after a leaked Interior  Department draft outlined options for carving thousands of acres out of six Western national monuments—including the 624,000‑acre Chuckwalla National Monument that President Joe Biden created only four months ago.

The internal document, first reported by The Washington Post, directs officials to examine boundary “adjustments” where copper, lithium or oil deposits lie, echoing the Trump administration’s 2017 reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase‑Escalante.

Chuckwalla, which spans a sweep of Mojave‑Sonoran transition zone south of Joshua Tree National Park, protects critical wildlife corridors, dark‑sky backcountry camp spots and popular overland and off-road routes in Southern California, including the 70‑mile Bradshaw Trail and Red Canyon Jeep Trail.

Biden’s proclamation keeps those roads open to street‑legal and green‑sticker vehicles, while requiring managers to map additional routes only when “necessary for public safety or resource protection.” Recreation advocates fear that if the monument’s footprint shrinks, future route designations—and the funding for signage and restoration that comes with them—could stall or disappear.

Conservationists stress that the stakes extend beyond access. Chuckwalla’s lava flows and microphyll woodlands store significant carbon; its bajadas link habitat for desert bighorn sheep, kit foxes and the threatened desert tortoise.

Tribal leaders from nine culturally affiliated nations are drafting a co‑stewardship proposal they hope will guide Bureau of Land Management planning over the next three years. A boundary rollback, they say, could sever sacred trail networks and derail nascent efforts to restore vandalized petroglyph sites.

Compounding the uncertainty is a lawsuit filed May 1 in federal court by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on behalf of Michigan gold prospector Dan Torongo and the BlueRibbon Coalition, an off-road advocacy group known for opposing conservation initiatives and that has been accused of being a front for the extraction industry.

The complaint argues that presidents may protect only “discrete” archaeological objects under the 1906 Antiquities Act and claims the monument will bar Torongo from expanding family placer claims and prevent coalition members from fully enjoying rock‑hounding, camping and four‑wheel travel inside the monument.

Mining experts note that Chuckwalla was withdrawn from new mineral entry the moment Biden signed the proclamation, but all properly recorded claims—like Torongo’s—remain valid. The proclamation’s own text makes that explicit, stating the monument is “subject to valid existing rights,” even as it closes the door on future staking. Claim holders may still sell or lease their ground, but they must follow any surface‑disturbance limits spelled out in the forthcoming management plan—limits that could tighten if the area is also prized for cultural resources or wildlife habitat.

For the off‑road community, the immediate impact is less about barricades than about timing. Local 4×4 clubs had penciled in spring workdays to harden dispersed campsites along the Bradshaw and to replace faded brown‑and‑white route markers. Organizers now hesitate to buy lumber and hardware without knowing whether the very routes they aim to improve will survive the political knife. Guides who were ready to market fall overland tours through Painted Canyon and Corn Springs likewise say clients are asking whether permits will still be valid next season.

BLM officials have declined to comment on either the lawsuit or the leaked downsizing plan, but by law they must begin drafting a management blueprint within three years of the monument’s creation. If the Trump administration moves ahead with boundary changes—or if courts side with the plaintiffs—that work could be overtaken by events, leaving volunteers and businesses in limbo.