by jocelyn | Mar 21, 2023 | Uncategorized
The official day has finally arrived! In November, President Biden announced during the annual White House Tribal Nations Summit that he intended to designate Avi Kwa Ame in Southern Nevada a national monument and last March, Secretary Haaland visited Castner Range in Texas. Today, the President honored his commitment to Tribal leaders, local elected leaders, businesses, recreationalists, and all of us by designating Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range as national monuments via the Antiquities Act.
Take Action: Thank President Biden for designating Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range national monuments!
Located between the Lake Mead National Recreation Area along the Nevada/Arizona border and the Mojave National Preserve in California, Avi Kwa Ame (the Mojave name for Spirit Mountain) is sacred to more than a dozen Tribes and is at the center of Yuman creation stories and spiritual ideology. The national monument includes Nevada’s largest Joshua Tree; petroglyphs; historic artifacts; rare and threatened wildlife such as the Mojave Desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep; and Walking Box Ranch, the home of 1930s-era film stars Rex Bell and Clara Bow.
Leaders in the region have been working on protection efforts for the Avi Kwa Ame landscape since the 1990s. Over the years the effort has boasted the support of Tribal Nations; local gateway communities; Nevada’s elected leaders from Senators to local City Council members; business; recreationists; and many more communities. Thanks to their dedication, persistence, and leadership over the years today we can all celebrate.
For more than 50 years, community leaders and area residents have advocated to restore and protect Castner Range – one of El Paso’s most iconic and intact Chihuahuan Desert landscapes – for future generations. The new national monument is celebrated for its blankets of poppies each spring, protects wildlife habitat and connectivity, provides opportunity for equitable access to nature, and is home to natural waterways and arroyos that replenish the local water supply. The landscape also plays an important part in El Paso’s cultural history, dating back thousands of years to the first peoples who settled in the area.
Send a message to say thank you to President Biden, and show your support for protecting more cherished places, like Avi Kwa Ame and Castnet Range, across the country!
by jocelyn | Oct 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
It’s here! President Joe Biden designated his first national monument today in Colorado – the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument.
Our country’s newest national monument, located just two hours west of Denver, honors our nation’s veterans and their contribution to our military legacy by protecting the place, Camp Hale, where the 10th Mountain Division trained during World War II. The Monument also includes protections for the vast mountainous Tenmile Range, where soldiers became experts in alpine and winter warfare.
And there’s more! Biden’s announcement also included his administration’s intent to initiate a 20-year mineral withdrawal for the Thompson Divide planning area. These actions will provide certainty for local communities until permanent protections become law.
All of President Biden’s action today heeded the calls from Colorado veterans, elected officials, business owners, hunters and anglers, and other community members in the state and throughout the nation.
One of those individuals calling on President Biden was 100 year old, 10th Mountain Division veteran Francis Lovett, who recalled his experience at Camp Hale during an interview with KOAA New5 saying:
“There’s something about being part of these natural surroundings. That just makes you better if you survived it, because it’s not kind always, but it’s always appreciated. Soldiers trained during some harsh Colorado winter conditions.”
Lovett and many throughout Colorado and the country are celebrating this momentous occasion.
Join them in celebrating Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument by signing a thank you letter to President Biden.
Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument was designated using the Antiquities Act, an important conservation and preservation tool, used by 18 presidents since it was first signed into law. Since 1906, the Antiquities Act has been an invaluable tool the President can use to protect many of our most iconic and treasured public lands and waters. This includes sites ranging from the Bears Ears to the Grand Canyon to the Stonewall Inn. These natural, cultural and historic sites, lands of great scientific value, and ocean waters are not only places on a map, but also contribute to telling often-untold stories and a full history of the United States. The Antiquities Act protects these places so the stories and experiences can be told and felt for generations to come.
As we honor the legacy, bravery, and ingenuity of the 10th Mountain Division veterans, we must also acknowledge that in the 1940s the Army was racially segregated, women were not allowed to serve, and LGBTQ individuals were not recognized. Although those stories will never be written because they were not permitted to exist, this designation provides an opportunity for individuals of all backgrounds to create their own stories and experiences on the landscape.
President Biden also has an opportunity to memorialize and honor stories of those who have been systematically marginalized, and protect public lands and waters, through further national monument designations. This includes Castner Range in Texas, Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, Black Wall Street in Oklahoma, the site of the Springfield Race Massacre in Illinois, and the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands in the Central Pacific Ocean.
We look forward to celebrating many more monument designations in the near future with all of you!
by jocelyn | Jun 7, 2022 | Uncategorized
Credit: Mark Clune
Ahead of the 116th anniversary of the Antiquities Act, 92 coalition partners are calling on President Biden to use the powers granted under the Act to designate Castner Range a national monument in a letter sent to the President earlier today. Building on the leadership of Congresswoman Escobar and the El Paso community which has worked for half a century to protect the environmental and cultural resources that date back 10,000 years, the Biden-Harris administration has already made an admirable commitment towards conservation through the president’s America the Beautiful Initiative, which aims to equitably preserve 30 percent of America’s land and waters by 2030. Now, this coalition of 92 organizations and the millions of supporters they represent urge the Biden-Harris administration to make good on that promise.
“Ultimately this land belongs to our children and future generations. Designating Castner Range as a national monument would not only permanently protect the area from future development but will illustrate a significant step to expand conservation education to marginalized communities who disproportionately bear the brunt of climate impacts and historically have less access to nature,” wrote the coalition partners.
Read the full letter here.
The pride of El Paso, Texas, Castner Range is a picturesque landscape, home to sacred Indigenous sites, rich in rare plants and endangered wildlife, and when conditions are right, dotted with thousands of vibrant Mexican poppies. Protecting Castner Range would serve to correct environmental injustice in the largest binational community in the nation and create a safe area for recreation for El Paso. Currently, the community faces an inequitable access to the outdoors, as most nearby parks charge an admission fee. The letter calls on the administration to set forth a plan to safely turn this former military installation into an area for recreation, solace, comfort, and equitable access to the outdoors as well as to work with local communities and native tribes as an integral component of ongoing management.
Designating Castner Range a national monument is also an opportunity for the Biden administration to make strides on their climate goals, as conservation is the most cost-effective strategy for mitigating climate change. Already surrounded on three sides by development, implementing these protections will ensure that the fragile lands of Castner Range will be preserved for the Indigenous peoples, veterans, and binational community of El Paso that hold significant historical and cultural ties to the area.
by jocelyn | Oct 19, 2021 | Uncategorized
More than 150 organizations, aquariums, and businesses joined a letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary Haaland, Secretary Raimondo, Secretary Vilsack, Chair Mallory, Ms. Gina McCarthy and Administrator Spinrad, enthusiastically thanking them for their actions restoring full protections to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monuments.
All three of the recently restored monuments protect biodiversity and critical habitat and in his address, the President mentioned the Tongass National Forest, Bristol Bay, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Our old growth forests and many other special, sacred, and important places must be permanently protected from development if we are to achieve our shared goal of protecting 30 percent of our lands and waters to combat the climate crisis, preserve biodiversity, and address inequitable access to nature.
Our community hopes that these recent proclamations will be precursors to future actions in pursuit of the administration’s goal of protecting ‘America the Beautiful.’
By acting to protect Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, the Biden administration honored the sacred landscape home to Indigenous Peoples, including the Paiute, Hopi, Zuni, Diné/Navajo, Ute, Acoma and Jemez Pueblos, and Ute Mountain Ute. Our community looks forward to Bears Ears National Monument serving as a new model of collaborative management between Tribes, state and federal land agencies. The traditional knowledge and place-based conservation strategies of Tribal communities should play a significant role in shaping efforts to conserve and plan for a resilient future for this landscape that we all hold dear.
by jocelyn | Oct 8, 2021 | Uncategorized
Photo credit: Josh Ewing
President Biden will take action on Friday, October 8 to restore protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
On December 4, 2017, then-President Trump attempted to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly half, opening some lands removed from the monuments to mining and drilling. Sovereign Tribal Nations and local Utah and national organizations immediately sued to protect the monuments’ value to Indigenous culture, world-renowned paleontological resources, outdoor recreation, biodiversity, and the region’s economic stability. Those lawsuits are pending.
Below are statements from local and national groups representing some of the plaintiffs in the federal court cases:
Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Statement (Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Zuni Tribe)
Tribes Look Forward To A New Model For Collaborative Management Of Ancestral Lands
Utah Diné Bikéyah – Woody Lee, Executive Director
“Utah Diné Bikéyah celebrates the Bears Ears National Monument restoration. We also acknowledge the challenging times our native communities are having right now which makes this achievement bittersweet but a welcome and hopeful change for the future. We appreciate all the support and hard work of many people, organizations, leaders, and supporters who have helped advance our mission of healing the land and the people.”
Grand Staircase Escalante Partners – Sarah Bauman, Executive Director
“We are grateful for the restoration of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument as a connected and protected landscape. Although we celebrate the restoration, we know that this is only the beginning of our work to ensure that this landscape – the first monument placed into the National Landscape Conservation System – is conserved, and its important science objectives, inclusive of Indigenous knowledge, realized. We look forward to working with Tribal leaders, conservation partners, the Bureau of Land Management, local and state officials, and others to safeguard irreplaceable natural and cultural resources, conduct essential research related to biodiversity and climate change, and protect Grand Staircase in perpetuity.”
Friends of Cedar Mesa – Joe Neuhof, Executive Director
“We are heartened President Biden has once again provided Bears Ears with the protections this internationally significant cultural landscape deserves. Restoration of Bears Ears National Monument demonstrates reverence for the Tribally led effort to protect these lands and acknowledges Bears Ears’ importance to Modern Indigenous Peoples. As evidenced by Edgar Lee Hewett’s recommendation way back in 1904, Bears Ears is exactly the kind of place the Antiquities Act was created to protect. While this day certainly is worthy of celebration, much hard work lies ahead to ensure Bears Ears safeguards do not swing with the political pendulum leaving this sacred landscape as collateral damage. Friends of Cedar Mesa looks forward to working with Tribes and Pueblos, federal land managers, and local communities to find common ground and provide real stewardship for these lands we all love.”
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance – Scott Groene, Executive Director
“President Biden’s restoration of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments will be hailed by generations for protecting some of the nation’s wildest and most culturally significant public lands. It’s hard to describe the relief and joy our members are feeling right now knowing these places and their irreplaceable objects are on the path to healing after years of deliberate mismanagement and neglect under the prior administration. We’re grateful to President Biden and Interior Secretary Haaland for their leadership in making these places whole.”
Access Fund – Chris Winter, Executive Director
“We are absolutely thrilled that President Biden restored landscape-scale protection for Bears Ears, an irreplaceable and sacred region for Indigenous people. Access Fund is humbled by the hard work of our partners during the ongoing fight to maintain the integrity of Bears Ears for future generations. Bears Ears is a special place for the rock climbing community and we are committed to protecting and conserving its cultural, natural, scientific and recreation values.”
Archaeology Southwest – Bill Doelle, President and CEO
“President Biden’s restoration of contiguous landscape-scale protections for these national monuments and the diverse cultural and scientific values they hold is invigorating. It is a concrete demonstration of the Biden Administration’s stated commitment to listen to Tribes, respect ancestral lands, preserve heritage, and be guided by science. This is something to celebrate!”
Center for Biological Diversity – Randi Spivak, Public Lands Program Director
“It’s fitting that President Biden’s fully restored protections for these spectacular national monuments Trump tried to desecrate. This is truly a reason to celebrate. Biden understands the importance of these landscapes to Native people and the need to act boldly to protect the climate and preserve our natural world.”
Conservation Lands Foundation – Brian Sybert, Executive Director
“Americans love their public lands and millions of them stood up to demand justice and the restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments. We celebrate President Biden’s proclamation to reinstate the original boundaries. We recognize and are grateful for the leadership and vision of Tribal governments and Indigenous non profit organizations to restore justice from the Trump Administration’s illegal actions. At a time when many people may be doubting the power of individual voices, President Biden has made clear with this order that his administration is listening and committed to conserve our country’s great public lands, respect Indigenous ways of knowing, address climate change and build a more equitable society.”
Defenders of Wildlife – Jamie Rappaport Clark, President and CEO
“We applaud today’s action by the Biden administration to restore protections and acreage to Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments. These lands are culturally significant to Indigenous peoples to whom these landscapes are sacred and are too scientifically important to leave unprotected. By prioritizing these monuments and conserving these lands, the Biden administration has underscored its commitment to equity, biodiversity and addressing climate change.”
Earthjustice – Heidi McIntosh, Attorney
“We celebrate today as an act of vindication for the Tribes in their fight to preserve these sacred places, and for the many, many people across the country who believe public lands should be protected, and not exploited for short-term, corporate gain.”
Grand Canyon Trust – Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director
“We applaud President Biden for his decision to honor our shared national heritage by restoring these national monuments. Indigenous peoples have conserved Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante for hundreds of generations, and the revival of these monuments celebrates that legacy.”
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Shelley Silbert, Executive Director
“We’re thrilled that President Biden and Secretary of Interior Haaland have ensured the protection of these monument lands for future generations. We celebrate the wisdom and action of Tribal organizations, who outlined the need for protection of these sacred places, and the local citizens who rallied to prevent their degradation. The intrinsic value of these spectacular landscapes for their cultural, scientific, and historic worth is immense, and the spiritual significance and unique habitat value is immeasurable.”
National Parks Conservation Association -Theresa Pierno, President and CEO
“Today’s action is a testament to the Tribal nations, local communities and businesses, conservation organizations and countless people across the country who spoke out and fought tirelessly to protect all that Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments and the surrounding national parks hold. We commend President Biden for taking this step to reverse the previous president’s illegal assault on these most treasured places and for providing the protections this land truly deserves. This is an important step in righting the wrongs and showing so many people across the country who care about preserving our national treasures that they have been heard. Today, we celebrate with all of them.”
Natural Resource Defense Council – Manish Bapna, President and CEO
“This is a victory for science, for future generations, and for anyone who looks to these special places for solace, education, healing, and inspiration. President Biden is restoring faith to millions of people across the country who stood up for these national treasures and opposed Trump’s illegal rollbacks. The Antiquities Act exists to protect unique places like these for all time. No President has the power to abolish those protections with the stroke of a pen.
“This begins a new chapter in managing Bears Ears that respects the Tribes’ traditional knowledge in caring for this living landscape. We stand proudly with the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Pueblo of Zuni, who led the long and visionary effort to protect and restore Bears Ears.”
Patagonia – Ryan Gellert, CEO
“We want to thank the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition for their leadership and thank all of our friends in the Indigenous and environmental communities who have worked to protect Bears Ears National Monument. We also want to thank the Biden administration, especially Secretary Haaland, for their work to restore protections for more than a million acres of sacred land. We have a shared responsibility to conserve these important cultural landscapes for future generations.”
Sierra Club – Chris Hill, Director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America Campaign
“The Biden administration’s decision to restore protections for three national monuments fulfills a promise to Tribal Nations and reaffirms its commitment to addressing the overlapping biodiversity and climate crises.
“We are thrilled Secretary Haaland has heeded the call of Tribal Nations to restore safeguards for the sacred lands in Bears Ears.”
“It is clear a cohesive, diverse movement can and will prevail over the profit motivations and injustices perpetrated by the fossil fuel and mining industries. Right now is our moment to chart a path together, rooted in justice, to protect the lands, waters and biodiversity on which we all depend.”
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology – David Polly, Past President
“This move restores the conservation status of more than 1,400 scientifically important fossil sites that were removed from GSE-NM in 2017, including sauropod swimming tracks, the location where the dinosaur Machairoceratops was discovered, and the Cretaceous-aged mammal sites that helped spur the establishment of the monument in 1996. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase still have important tales to tell about the ancient history of life on our planet, and this action helps ensure that they will be told.”
The Wilderness Society – Jamie Williams, President
“The President’s actions will fulfill a promise to restore protections illegally ripped away from national monuments while at the same time ensuring these same lands address the need to tackle the climate and extinction crisis. It also shows a true commitment to working with the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain, and Zuni Tribes to co-manage their tribal homelands in Bears Ears. It also acknowledges the incredible scientific importance of Grand Staircase.
“The President’s commitment to saving more nature will continue to require bold action from him and today gets us a bit closer to reaching those goals. This executive action taken by President Biden recognizes the timely work to be done to truly protect 30% of our land and waters by 2030. He and his team can continue to build on this momentum by protecting other important landscapes, especially those of importance to Tribes and underserved communities such as Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas.”
Western Watersheds Project – Erik Molvar, Executive Director
“Bears Ears and Grand Staircase National Monuments are spectacular landscapes, and restoring these monuments shows respect for the land, strong stewardship for their desert ecosystems, and honors the Indigenous peoples who now will have an expanded influence on their management. Granting full protections to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante is critically important to protect these fragile desert lands from exploitation by the livestock industry and mineral extraction corporations.”
Wild Earth Guardians – John Horning, Executive Director
“WildEarth Guardians is elated that President Biden is restoring Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments. We thank the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe for their resolve in leading the fight to protect Bears Ears. Now we can once again get to work preserving the biodiversity and cultural, archeological and paleontological resources of these spectacular landscapes.”
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