On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced the formation of two national monuments in Nevada and Texas, as well as a directive to research the feasibility of a potential marine sanctuary in the southwestern region of Hawaii. The proposed sanctuary is so expansive that it would enable the administration to achieve its target of safeguarding 30% of the country's aquatic resources.
“Our natural wonders are literally the envy of the world. They’ve always been and they always will be,” Biden said at the Interior Department headquarters as he touted his administration’s conservation record and the new monument designations according to Politico. “They’re central to our heritage as a people and they’re central to our identity as a nation.”
Biden used his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to establish not only the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument on lands considered sacred to Yuman-speaking Native American tribes in southern Nevada but also the nearly 7,000-acre Castner Range National Monument in northern El Paso, Texas.
At a White House summit on conservation action, President Biden acknowledged these natural resources, stating that they are “protecting the heart and soul of our national pride." Speaking about the newly designated sites, he emphasized that they are “natural treasures'' that "define our identity as a nation. They’re a birthright we have to pass down to generation after generation."
Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame, a desert mountain in southern Nevada that Native Americans consider sacred, as a national monument, along with the Castner Range in El Paso, Texas. He also moved to create a national marine sanctuary in U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.
While conservation and tribal groups lauded President Joe Biden's recent decision to establish two national monuments and investigate the formation of a massive marine sanctuary, Nevada's recently elected Republican governor Joe Lombardo decried the move as "federal confiscation" of Nevada's land and a "historical blunder" that will have ramifications for generations to come.
The governor claimed that the White House failed to collaborate with his administration before taking steps to prohibit clean-energy initiatives and other progress within his state, and described the policy as indicative of a "Washington Knows Best" attitude that might benefit special interests but would result in the loss of employment and economic opportunities for his constituents.
In the state of Texas, President Biden has declared that the Castner Range designation shall serve the purpose of safeguarding significant cultural, scientific, and historic objects, venerating the valiant U.S. veterans and tribal nations, and augmenting the availability of outdoor recreation opportunities on public lands. Fort Bliss, where Castner Range is situated, was utilized as a training and testing site for the U.S. Army during the momentous World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It was in 1966 that the Army terminated their training activities and eventually closed Castner Range.
When taken together, the two newly-established national monuments are instrumental in preserving a total of 514,000 acres (208,000 hectares) of public lands. The Avi Kwa Ame landscape, which is deemed holy by 12 tribes, sustains rare wildlife and plants, while the Castner Range, the ancestral home of the Comanche and Apache people, boasts of cultural ecology that is considered sacred by numerous Indigenous communities.
“To the native people who point to Avi Kwa Ame as their spiritual birthplace, and every Nevadan who knows the value of our cherished public lands: Today is for you,″ tweeted Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nevada, who sponsored a bill to protect the rugged region near the Mojave National Preserve from development, including solar farms and a proposed wind farm. “Spirit Mountain will now be protected for future generations,″ Titus said as reported by AP News.
As President Biden makes strides forward in preserving national landscapes, mitigating climate change, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions, he still faces criticism from environmental groups and young activists over his approval of the huge Willow oil drilling project in Alaska. Criticism however, does not surprise President Biden as he prepares for reelection campaign.
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