A Western group of local elected officials is urging President Joe Biden to designate six new national monuments and expand existing ones across the West.
The Mountain Pact—a group comprising local officials from 100 Western communities—released a report emphasizing the conservation and economic advantages of national monuments with testimonials underscoring their significance in their localities.
“National monuments are important to western communities. Protecting public lands has always been a bipartisan effort and one that all Americans can celebrate,” said Anna Peterson, executive director of The Mountain Pact. “We continue to urge President Biden to use his authority under the Antiquities Act to protect more places with cultural and scientific significance as national monuments.”
Biden designated the fifth national monument in August 2023 with the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni–Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, protecting nearly 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Biden has also restored Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante boundaries in Utah, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The Camp Hale-Continental Divide in Colorado, Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, Castner Range in Texas, and Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley sites in Illinois and Mississippi were established under the Biden administration.
The report claims more national monuments are crucial for addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis. In addition, it cites a 2023 Conservation in the West Poll from Colorado College’s State of the Rockies program, which reported that 84% of people in the West strongly support presidents continuing to use their authority to designate public lands for protection.
It also cites a 2023 Outdoor Industry Association Outdoor Participation Trends Report showing a continual growth in outdoor activity participation, with a 2.3% increase in 2022, reaching 168.1 million people.
According to the report, the National Park System and numerous national monuments had over 312 million visitors in 2022, contributing significantly to local economies with 378,400 jobs and $50.3 billion in economic output. Additionally, Bureau of Land Management lands welcomed over 80 million visits in 2022.
Proposed designations
Among the potential national monument designations is the Great Bend of the Gila in Arizona.
The group Respect Great Bend of the Gila states a national monument designation would ensure the protection of cultural, historical and ecological resources used by Tribes between Phoenix and Yuma in Arizona. They assert preserving the Great Bend of the Gila is crucial for maintaining the region’s wildlife habitats and ensuring the survival of desert species like bighorn sheep, Sonoran Desert tortoise, mule deer and javelina.
The Mountain Pact report urges Biden to create the Chuckwalla National Monument and the SáttÃtla-Medicine Lake Highlands National Monument in California to preserve culturally significant lands for Native American communities.
The Chuckwalla designation would preserve approximately 660,000 acres of federal land in the Coachella Valley region in the west to the Colorado River in the east. The proposal for the SáttÃtla-Medicine Lake Highlands involves about 200,000 acres of public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service in Northern California. The Pit River Nation and other Tribes are urging the federal designation to safeguard their ancestral lands from ongoing risks posed by geothermal energy development.
The Mountain Pact also calls for Biden to expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in Southern California and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Northern California.
The report also advocates for establishing the Delores Canyon National Monument in Colorado. The group Protect the Delores calls the region of 500,000 acres below McPhee Dam to the Utah state line in western Colorado the state’s most diverse unprotected ecosystems.
In New Mexico, the Mountain Pact proposes designating Mimbres Peak National Monument, part of the Chihuahuan Desert.
It also proposes Owyhee Canyonlands in southeast Oregon. A coalition of environmental groups has formed Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands to assist in the passage of Senate Bill 1890 introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). The bill would establish a grazing management program for Malheur County and designate close to 1.1 million acres as wilderness areas. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
