Sand to Snow National Monument is a

U.S. National Monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

located in

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

and northern

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Uni ...

, Southern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It protects diverse montane and desert

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s of the San Bernardino Mountains, southern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

, and northwestern Colorado Desert.

Geography

The national monument protects a total of , with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managing acres, and the USFS−

San Bernardino National Forest The San Bernardino National Forest is a United States National Forest in Southern California encompassing of which are federal. The forest is made up of two main divisions, the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernard ...

managing .Whitehouse.gov: Presidential Proclamation − Establishment of the Sand to Snow National Monument
12 February 2016 – "The USFS shall manage that portion of the monument within the boundaries of the

, and BLM shall manage the remainder of the monument."USDA Forest Service: Sand to Snow National Monument webpage
It extends from around on the Coachella Valley desert floor up to over in the San Bernardino Mountains. Over of the national monument are within the

San Gorgonio Wilderness The San Gorgonio Wilderness is located in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains, in San Bernardino County and into northern Riverside County, Southern California. It begins north of San Gorgonio Pass, approximately west of Morongo Valley and n ...

area, which was designated by Congress in 1964. An eastern border in the

Little San Bernardino Mountains The Little San Bernardino Mountains are a short mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast from the San Bernardino Mountains through San Bernardino an ...

abuts

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to the Mojave Desert. Origin ...

. A separate section expands the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness area to the northeast. of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail pass through the monument. The headwaters of the Santa Ana River, Whitewater River, Morongo Creek, and San Gorgonio River are within it. The park protects a significant

wildlife corridor A wildlife corridor, habitat corridor, or green corridor is an area of habitat connecting wildlife populations separated by human activities or structures (such as roads, development, or logging). This allows an exchange of individuals between ...

and landscape linkage between the

/San Gorgonio Wilderness area,

, and Bighorn Mountain Wilderness area.The Wildlands Conservancy: Sand to Snow National Monument
/ref>

Ecology

Diverse

plant communities A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...

in the park support flora of the higher Mojave and lower Sonoran Colorado Deserts, chaparral,

California oak woodland California oak woodland is a plant community found throughout the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of California in the United States and northwestern Baja California in Mexico. Oak woodland is widespread at lower elevations in coastal ...

, coniferous forest, and

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National Pa ...

ecosystems, making it the most botanically rich national monument in the United States. Plant life native to the San Bernardino Mountains is influenced by their location at the convergence of three distinct ecosystems: California chaparral and woodlands to the west, Mojave Desert to the east, and

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

to the south. There are over 1,600 different plant species native to the range. Sand dunes are home to the endangered

fringe-toed lizard Fringe-toed lizards are lizards of the genus ''Uma'' in the family Phrynosomatidae, native to deserts of North America. They are adapted for life in sandy deserts with fringe-like scales on their hind toes hence their common name. Description ...

at the lower elevation confluence of the Whitewater and San Gorgonio Rivers, while

Desert bighorn sheep The desert bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis nelsoni'') is a subspecies of bighorn sheep (''Ovis canadensis'') that is native to the deserts of the United States' intermountain west and southwestern regions, as well as northwestern Mexico. The ...

are found at higher elevations.

Designation

Sand to Snow National Monument was designated by

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

on February 12, 2016 along with Castle Mountains National Monument and Mojave Trails National Monument. It is governed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

and the Bureau of Land Management. The Sand to Snow National Monument was inspired by

The Wildlands Conservancy The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve land for public recreation. It operates 23 preserves in California and Oregon. The preserve system comprises 210,686 acres including mountains, valleys, de ...

’s twenty-year-old Sand to Snow Wilderness Interface Project that included more than of privately-funded land acquisition, including private properties threatened with development. The Conservancy established Whitewater Preserve, Mission Creek Preserve, and Pioneertown Mountains Preserve. The Big Morongo Canyon Preserve was protected as a wildlife reserve in 1982, and later included in the monument, forming thus its most developed area. The aggregate set of preserved lands extends recreational opportunities in the Coachella Valley region.

References

External links

USFS: Sand to Snow National Monument websiteBLM California: Sand to Snow National Monument websiteSand to Snow National Monument MapSand to Snow National Monument Q&AsPresidential Proclamation – Establishment of the Sand to Snow National MonumentBLM California: Flickr photo gallery of Sand to Snow National Monument
{{authority control National Monuments in California Parks in Riverside County, California Parks in San Bernardino County, California Bureau of Land Management National Monuments United States Forest Service National Monuments Protected areas of the Colorado Desert Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Coachella Valley San Bernardino Mountains San Bernardino National Forest Bureau of Land Management areas in California Protected areas established in 2016 2016 establishments in California Units of the National Landscape Conservation System National Monuments designated by Barack Obama

Geography

Ecology

Designation

See also

References

External links