Permanent protection for the Medicine Lake Highlands

California’s Medicine Lake Highlands are a unique area of public lands that serves as a vast natural water reservoir and the sole source of the Fall River and its famous trout fishery.

Photo: Pit River Tribe

Tell President Biden and Congress to designate the Medicine Lake Highlands National Monument to ensure this region’s unique water values, habitats, sporting opportunities and cultural significance are permanently protected.

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Where is Medicine Lakes Highlands?

The Medicine Lake Highlands (“Sáttítla” to the Pit River Tribe) are a region of some 200 square miles in northern California, about a 90-minute drive northeast of Mt. Shasta. This area is mostly within Siskiyou County, and is managed as part of the Modoc, Shasta-Trinity, and Klamath National Forests.

What’s at stake?

Even among California’s remarkable diversity of landscapes and ecosystems, the Medicine Lake Highlands stand out as an area of public lands with unique geologic, hydrologic, habitat and biodiversity values that provides excellent fishing and hunting opportunities. This area is the homeland of the Pit River Tribe and is sacred to other Indigenous peoples for its extraordinary waters and landscape features.

The Medicine Lake Highlands filter and store as much water each year as California’s 200 largest reservoirs combined. This amazing natural water reserve is the source of the Fall River, California largest true spring creek and a famous trout fishery that the state has designated a Wild and Heritage Trout Water.

The Medicine Lake Highlands are almost entirely managed for multiple use. There are no designated Wilderness areas or other lands or waters with strong legislative or administrative protections. For decades, the Pit River Tribe and a local conservation group have been fighting to prevent proposed industrial-scale geothermal energy development in the Medicine Lake Highlands.

Photo: Confluence Outfitters

Supporting information

In 2023, the Pit River Tribe formally launched a campaign to permanently protect the Medicine Lake Highlands as a national monument. Trout Unlimited and other sportsmen and sportswomen’s groups support this campaign.

The State of California and Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonsa Butler have endorsed national monument designation for the Medicine Lake Highlands.

National monument designations help to permanently protect some of the finest sporting opportunities in America. As the warming climate continues to degrade aquatic and upland habitats, we must act now to better protect places such as the Medicine Lake Highlands that provide productive habitat and supply clean water for people and wildlife.

Frequently asked questions

Why should the Medicine Lake Highlands be designated a national monument?

Many of America’s most unique and historic land- and waterscapes have been designated national monuments. This designation typically is reserved for features and sites with one or more of the following: unusual scenic character, historic or cultural significance, scientific value, and important natural history qualities. The Medicine Lake Highlands offer all of these, yet currently have no special designations that provide strong, durable protections for these values. Importantly, the Medicine Lake Highands are the homeland of the Pit River Tribe, which has requested that the president permanently protect this area as a national monument.

How would the Medicine Lake Highlands be managed as a national monument?

Following a designation as Satitla/Medicine Lake Highlands National Monument, the U.S. Forest Service would develop a new management plan with extensive Tribal consultation and and public involvement to ensure this area’s extraordinary cultural, hydrologic, geologic, and habitat values are protected.
Virtually all existing uses of the area, including all forms of recreation currently allowed, would continue to be allowed. But the values which qualify the Medicine Lake Highlands for national monument status – the area’s vast natural freshwater reserves, extraordinary landscape features, traditional cultural significance, diverse habitats and wildlife – would be better and more specifically protected.

Will hunting and fishing continue to be allowed in the Medicine Lake Highlands once they are designated a national monument?

Yes. Hunting and fishing are allowed in national monuments and would continue to be legal and welcome uses of the Medicine Lake Highlands as regulated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Would monument designation prevent the Forest Service and other agencies from effectively fighting wildfires?

No. The Forest Service and other agencies that collaborate to respond to fire incidents would be able to fight wildfire in and around the national monument area in all the ways that they do today.

Is motorized use allowed in a national monument?

Yes. Legally designated roads and trails would remain open to the public, and improved management would reduce illegal off-road vehicle use.

What would happen to public or commercial activities occurring within a monument?

“Existing rights” are protected in national monuments. This means that most public and commercial activities are welcome and continue after monuments are established. “Existing rights” may include oil and gas leases, valid mining claims, rights-of-way and utility infrastructure, commercial (guided) hunting and fishing, and livestock grazing.  However, many national monuments do limit or prohibit future (not currently existing) oil and gas leases, mining claims, rights-of-way and utility infrastructure, and land disposal.

Would private property, Tribal lands, or county, city, or state jurisdictions be affected by national monument designation?

No. National monument designations apply only to federal public lands. Monument designation would not affect access to or use of land owned by others. 

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