California on track to conserve 30% of its land, but is lagging on coastal waters

After adding more than a million acres in the last year, California is on track to meet its goal of conserving 30% of its land by 2030, officials announced Tuesday.

However, the state lags in its efforts to conserve 30% of its coastal waters in the same time frame. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom established the “30×30” initiative in 2020, virtually all of increase in protected waters came from a single marine sanctuary created by the federal government in 2024.

“While Donald Trump looks for ways to hand public lands to private developers and roll back the safeguards that protect our parks, wildlife, and coastal communities, California is doing the opposite,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are conserving more land than ever before, protecting our iconic coastline from new offshore oil and gas drilling, revitalizing wildlife habitat, and ensuring every Californian can experience the natural treasures that make the Golden State extraordinary.”

As of June, California had conserved 27.1% of its land and 21.9% of its coastal waters, officials said. Four years ago, when the state began tracking progress, it had about 23.8% of its land and 16.2% of its coastal waters under conservation. Some of the recent gains came from re-categorizing conservation agreements that had already existed.

“For us, it’s never been just an accounting exercise,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “It’s helping all Californians and nature thrive together: How do we protect this globally renowned biodiversity, and how do we protect the natural systems that sustain us.”

California is heavily reliant on the federal government to reach its conservation goals. About 78% of the terrain now under conservation is federal land, including national parks and national forests. The state is responsible for about 10% of conserved land, with nonprofits, local governments, tribes and other entities making up the rest.

The majority of last year’s gains on land came from two new national monuments, created by President Biden during the final days of his administration: Chuckwalla National Monument, near Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, in obsidian-rich Northern California woodlands.

Shortly after President Trump took office, his administration posted an announcement implying that Biden’s creation of the national monuments had been rescinded.

Although the Trump administration backed away from that position, the Justice Department has ruled the president has the authority to abolish national monuments created by predecessors. The finding came after the Interior Department began exploring the possibility of expanded resource extraction, such as mining and drilling, at national monuments.

The administration has also been quietly pressuring the National Park Service to sell a sliver of Yosemite National Park to a private developer. (The Interior Department acknowledged a land deal was under consideration but denied inappropriate influence from the White House.)

Beyond reducing the size of conserved lands, efforts to loosen protections could also set back California’s progress. The state counts land under its 30×30 goals only if the area’s “natural land cover” is protected, with limited practices that could “degrade” the quality of the existing ecosystems. This does not include lands subject to significant extractive uses, like logging or mining, or disruptive recreation activities, like OHV off-road driving.

This summer, the Trump administration rescinded Nixon-era executive orders that required federal land managers to minimize damage to ecosystems when designating OHV trails. Trump has also worked to significantly expand logging in national forests, prompting concern among conservationists that the move would enable timber companies to use disruptive practices such as clear-cutting or old-growth logging.

Crowfoot said the state would continue tracking the federal government’s moves to check whether lands still fall under the state’s standards for protection, but he argued 30×30 has become a movement much bigger than a single administration.

California’s efforts in coastal waters have also gotten more challenging. The Biden administration’s designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in 2024 represents virtually all of California’s progress conserving coastal waters since the state began tracking. The sanctuary was formally proposed in 2015; however, it sat virtually untouched during the first Trump administration, before Biden-era officials picked it back up.

Crowfoot remains optimistic that California will close the gap. The state had paused expansion of its Marine Protected Areas as officials evaluated the effectiveness of management practices. That process started in the late 2010s and progressed into 2023.

Researchers found that the designated areas were in fact improving the abundance and diversity of marine life. The state is now in the process of reviewing proposals for new protected areas.

California is also looking to support new tribal- and community-led conservation efforts along the coast to meet its goal, Crowfoot said.

“We clearly need to make more progress on the coastal side,” he said. When asked whether he expects California to reach its goal, he offered a clear prediction: “Absolutely.”