Quechan ancestral lands cover a vast territory that extends from Avi kwamé to Baja, Mexico, and from Palm Springs, California to the Phoenix Basin. Over the past two centuries, the environment of this landscape has drastically been altered by dams, diversions, and development. By keeping the mesquite bosques, riparian corridors and mountain ranges intact, this project safeguards clean water and wildlife corridors that allow native species to adapt to hotter, drier conditions.
In January 2025, the Bureau of Land Management signed a co-stewardship agreement with the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe. The Protect Kw’tsán campaign (PKC) focuses on safeguarding 388,000 acres of these natural desert homelands from the destruction and prohibiting the most extractive use like mining, oil and gas development and other forms of industrial energy development. They will focus on staff training, management planning and launching an on-the-ground restoration project to ensure Quechan Values shape the land management, while also working towards permanent protection.
Atsapáq is also organizing Tribal participation in Chuckwalla National Monument’s management planning and will defend its protections from rollback while putting into action a co-stewardship agreement with the Bureau of Land Management. By linking the Quechan homelands with nearby conserved areas such as Avi Kwa Ame and Chuckwalla, the project increases connectivity across hundreds of miles of protected desert, giving wildlife and native plants room to migrate and thrive as the climate shifts.
