The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to abolish California’s two newest national monuments, Sáttítla Highlands National Monument in the state’s far north and Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree. The push to eliminate the designations, issued earlier this year by former President Joe Biden, was revealed in a U.S. Justice Department memo this week, responding to legal questions from the administration about rolling back the California monuments. Sáttítla Highlands monument was established in January to protect a remote 224,000-acre volcanic landscape northeast of Mount Shasta, known for lava beds and caves. The designation was sought by Northern California’s Pit River Tribe to prevent geothermal power production at tribally sacred sites. … In a statement, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields cited the president’s pledge to “liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal and mineral leasing.”