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 Unit ...

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. 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 The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain � ...

, 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 in ...

, and northwestern

Colorado Desert California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna. Geography and geology The Colorado De ...

Geography

The national monument protects a total of , with the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

(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 , map_image = Wpdms shdrlfi020l coachella valley.jpg , map_caption = Coachella Valley , location = California, United States , coordinates = , width = , boundaries = Salton Sea (southeast), Santa Rosa Mountains (southwest), San Jacint ...

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 no ...

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 and ...

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, California, Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to t ...

. A separate section expands the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness area to the northeast. of the

Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...

pass through the monument. The

headwater The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source. Definition The ...

s of the

Santa Ana River The Santa Ana River is the largest river entirely within Southern California in the United States. It rises in the San Bernardino Mountains and flows for most of its length through San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, before cutting through ...

, Whitewater River, Morongo Creek, and

San Gorgonio River The San Gorgonio River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 16, 2011 river primarily flowing in western Riverside County, with a small upstream section in southwester ...

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 co ...

in the park support flora of the higher Mojave and lower Sonoran

chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

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 coasta ...

, 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 The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...

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 Arizona ...

to the south. There are over 1,600 different plant species native to the range.

Sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

s 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 Bu ...

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 (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

on February 12, 2016 along with Castle Mountains National Monument and

Mojave Trails National Monument Mojave Trails National Monument is a large U.S. National Monument located in the state of California between Interstates 15 and 40. It partially surrounds the Mojave National Preserve. It was designated by President Barack Obama on February 12, ...

. 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 inc ...

and the

. 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 Whitewater Preserve is a Wildlands Conservancy nature preserve consisting of of land in Riverside County, California. It features the perennial Whitewater River flowing through a desert canyon. The preserve is located within the San Bernar ...

, Mission Creek Preserve, and Pioneertown Mountains Preserve. The

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve The Big Morongo Canyon Preserve is a 31,000-acres (130 km2) native plants habitat and wildlife preserve located in the Little San Bernardino Mountains of the Transverse Ranges, in the transition zone between the higher Mojave Desert and lowe ...

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