The newest land grab proposal – and piece to the 30X30 puzzle – is a new national monument in Southern California that would include 390,000 acres of land directly north of the world famous Glamis Sand Dunes. Below is a map of the proposal from the Quechen Tribe along with environmental activists to lock up at least 390,000 acres as the Kw’tsán National Monument.
The presentation given below is the marketing campaign to try and garner public support for a national monument. There are clearly motives rather than protection of specific cultural sites because the presentation states, “Tribe and experts from various fields will create case to justify boundaries“. The Antiquities Act is only supposed to be used to designate the smallest area possible of historical and cultural significance. If boundaries haven’t already been justified then that signals the boundaries are larger than whatever significant area they are trying to protect and certainly not correlated to the protection of any discrete or specific object. In short, Monument boundaries should be justified prior to the proposal being made, not after the fact. It’s also odd the primary boundaries are a highway and a railway. These are most likely just convenient linear features for creating a boundary and not coincidentally important boundaries for protecting narrowly defined cultural objects situated upon a landscape.
National monuments historically restrict access for various users such as mining, grazing, roads, target shooting, camping and every other pursuit. Monument designations are almost always used as a tool to severely limit group events commercial events on public land. Join us to send a letter to your representatives letting them know you do not support this massive land grab in Southern California that will alter the use and history of this area and communities.
