A chuckwalla lizard sunbathes in this 2007 file photo from Amboy Crater National Natural Area in southern California. The lizard is the namesake of the new Chuckwalla National Monument.
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David McNew/Getty Images
President Biden is creating two new national monuments in California on Tuesday, preserving land from development and setting a record for the most land and water conserved by any president, the White House said.
Sáttítla Highlands National Monument covers more than 224,000 acres in Northern California and includes the ancestral lands of the Pit River Tribe and Modoc peoples. A dormant volcano sits at its center and is home to the oldest known lava tube system in the world.
Chuckwalla National Monument spans more than 624,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park in southern California and includes sacred sites important to five groups of indigenous peoples and 50 rare species of plants and d animals, including Chuckwalla’s lizard.
The Chuckwalla Monument is part of a corridor of protected lands stretching about 600 miles west on a total of nearly 18 million acres in California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah that the White House calls the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor.
In total, the White House said Biden protected 674 million acres of land and water through monuments and other designations during his four years in office.
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