By WILL WEISSERT WASHINGTON — In an announcement postponed by the Los Angeles wildfires, President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two sites in California as national monuments that will honor Native American tribes while shielding picturesque mountains and deserts from mining and energy development. Biden made the designations at an event at the White House, a week after — and on the other side of the country from — how he’d originally planned to do so, with a speech in California’s Eastern Coachella Valley. The president landed in California on Jan. 6, but made it as far as Los Angeles before high winds — that helped spark the Los Angeles blazes — forced officials to scrap the event. It was a stark reminder that, even as Biden uses the last days of his administration to attempt to safeguard the environment, climate change is already helping to exacerbate natural disasters. Colin Barrows, a member of the CactusToCloud Institute, left, and Sendy Hernández Orellana Barrows, conservation program manager for the Council of Mexican Federation, embark on a hike into land that would be preserved by the Chuckwalla National Monument in this 2022 file photo. President Joe Biden, who is visiting the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, is expected to establish the monument as he shores up his environmental legacy ahead of leaving office on Jan. 20. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Sendy Hernández Orellana Barrows, conservation program manager for the Council of Mexican Federations, left, and Colin Barrows, of the CactusToCloud Institute, climb into the Ladder Canyon trail at Painted Canyon near Mecca on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. The area would be part of a proposed Chuckwalla National Monument. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) President Joe Biden will designate an area in the eastern Coachella Valley as the Chuckwalla National Monument, preserving almost 700,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park. (Courtesy of EcoFlight) People stand in the desert along Box Canyon Road in the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 near a checkpoint to attend President Joe Biden’s announcement of the Chuckwalla National Monument. The event was later cancelled due to weather. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) A vehicle leaves Joshua Tree National Park in the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. President Joe Biden was scheduled to announce creation of the Chuckwalla National Monument in the area, but the event was canceled due to bad weather. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy approaches a Donald Trump supporter’s recreational vehicle along Box Springs Canyon Road in the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, as vehicles wait at a checkpoint to attend President Joe Biden’s announcement of the Chuckwalla National Monument. The event was canceled due to bad weather. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG) President Joe Biden will designate an area in the eastern Coachella Valley as the Chuckwalla National Monument, preserving almost 700,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park. (Courtesy of EcoFlight) President Joe Biden will designate an area in the eastern Coachella Valley as the Chuckwalla National Monument, preserving almost 700,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park. (Courtesy of EcoFlight) Photo courtesy of Frazier HaneyChuckwalla Bench (Photo courtesy of Frazier Haney) Show Caption1 of 9Colin Barrows, a member of the CactusToCloud Institute, left, and Sendy Hernández Orellana Barrows, conservation program manager for the Council of Mexican Federation, embark on a hike into land that would be preserved by the Chuckwalla National Monument in this 2022 file photo. President Joe Biden, who is visiting the eastern Coachella Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 7, is expected to establish the monument as he shores up his environmental legacy ahead of leaving office on Jan. 20. (File photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) Expand Instead, Biden spoke next to screens featuring towering peaks, desert vistas and an array of plant and animal life. “I was hoping we were going to do this in place,” the president said. “This is as close as we could get.” Biden formally created the Chuckwalla National Monument, in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park, and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in Northern California. President Joe Biden departs after signing a proclamation to establish the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument during an event in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The declarations bar oil and natural gas drilling, as well as mining and other exploration and production initiatives, on the 624,000-acre Chuckwalla site, and roughly 225,000 acres  near the California-Oregon border. The protected area encompasses natural wonders including the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and Alligator Rock, and is home to 50-plus rare species of plants and animals like the desert bighorn sheep and the Chuckwalla lizard — which the monument is named for, the White House said in a statement. At the event, Biden talked about taking his children to national monuments around the country yearly when they were young to “witness the majesty, the beauty.” “Our national wonders are the heart and soul of this nation,” he said. “It’s a birthright we pass on from generation to generation. ” The monuments becoming realities honor past tribal requests. Many Native American tribes and environmental groups have pushed for designation of the Chuckwalla National Monument, while the Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. Related links President Joe Biden creates national monument in Riverside County President Joe Biden to visit eastern Riverside County, could announce new national monument Joshua Tree National Park could get new neighbor — a national monument Biden joked about being careful not to mispronounce Sáttítla, then still struggled to pronounce it. When he sat down to sign the formal acts, he simply referred to it as the “highlands” monument — meaning he didn’t have to give it another try. The designations are part of a larger Biden administration effort to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. They follow Biden’s recent move banning new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, including in California. That was an attempt to thwart possible efforts by the incoming Republican administration to expand offshore drilling, but is also an order President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to quickly reverse.