Biden to limit development on 500,000 acres in Texas and Nevada with new monuments
Jeremy Beaman
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The White House announced plans to establish two new national monuments as part of President Joe Biden’s land conservation agenda, which it said would protect and conserve 514,000 acres of public land in the West.
Biden will sign a proclamation Tuesday at the White House Conservation in Action Summit establishing the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and the Castner Range National Monument in El Paso, Texas. The designations will restrict development in the areas, including drilling and mining and possibly the construction of renewable energy facilities.
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The Avi Kwa Ame designation honors tribal nations that consider the area sacred, the White House said. Avi Kwa Ame is home to one of the world’s largest Joshua tree forests.
The monument at Castner Range covers the site of a former training and testing site used by the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. It also contains cultural sites significant to tribal nations, including the Apache and Comanche.
Biden set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and, in October, established a new national monument encompassing Camp Hale, another former U.S. Army base, and the site of the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado.
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In a separate action Tuesday, Biden will direct Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to consider initiating a new National Marine Sanctuary designation to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.