“Together, we will honor Avi Kwa Ame today – from its rich Indigenous history, to its vast and diverse plant and wildlife, to the outdoor recreation opportunities created for local cities and towns in southern Nevada by a new gorgeous monument right in their backyard,” the group said.īiden designated his first national monument, in Colorado, last year. The Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition, which includes tribes, local residents, state lawmakers and conservation groups, said its members were “overjoyed” to learn the site will be a new national monument. Under the leadership of Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member, “We have a seat at the table and we have seen an unprecedented era and opportunity for our tribal communities,” Williams said. Biden’s creation of a new monument demonstrated his “commitment to respect tribal nations and our nation-to-nation relationship.” Veronica Escobar.įort Mojave Tribe Chairman Timothy Williams, who attended the conservation summit, said tribes throughout the Southwest consider Avi Kwa Ame to be sacred land. In Texas, the Castner Range monument “will preserve fragile lands already surrounded on three sides by development,” help ensure access to clean water and protect rare and endangered species, said Democratic Rep. Protesters hung a large yellow banner that said, “Stop the Willow oil project” and chanted “no more drilling, no more drilling, no more drilling on federal land.” But the decision on Willow has alienated supporters, particularly young activists skeptical about political compromise at the same time Biden is planning to announce his reelection campaign.Ĭlimate activists gathered outside the Interior Department on Tuesday to condemn what they call Biden’s “climate hypocrisy” and demand the administration change course on Willow. The area to be protected is “larger than Alaska and Colorado put together,” Biden said.īiden’s actions come as he faces sharp criticism from environmental groups and youth activists over his approval of the huge Willow oil drilling project in Alaska.īiden has made fighting global warming a central part of his agenda and has pledged to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. jurisdiction by 2030, the White House said. reaches Biden’s goal to conserve at least 30% of ocean waters under U.S. If completed, the new sanctuary would help ensure the U.S. In the Pacific, Biden directed the Commerce Department to initiate a marine sanctuary designation to protect 777,000 square miles around the Pacific Remote Islands. “They’ve always been and always will be central to our heritage as a people and essential to our identity as a nation.″ “Our national wonders are literally the envy of the world,″ Biden said in a speech at the Interior Department. “This kind of ‘Washington Knows Best’ policy might win plaudits from unaccountable special interests, but it’s going to cost our state jobs and economic opportunity,” Lombardo said in a statement. Joe Lombardo, who unseated the state’s Democratic governor in November, said the White House did not consult with his administration before moving to block clean-energy projects and other development in his state. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.Ĭonservation and tribal groups praised Biden’s actions, but Nevada’s new Republican governor slammed the Avi Kwa Ame monument as “federal confiscation” of Nevada land and “a historic mistake that will cost Nevadans for generations to come.” He also moved to create a national marine sanctuary in U.S. They’re a birthright we have to pass down to generation after generation.”īiden 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. Speaking at a White House summit on conservation action, Biden said the new monuments are among the “natural treasures” that “define our identity as a nation.
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