Castner Range, Avi Kwa Ame will become national monuments

There will be two new national monuments starting Tuesday. President Joe Biden will designate Castner Range in Texas and more than 500,000 acres of Avi Kwa Ame in southern Nevada as protected national monuments.

The designations come as part of Biden’s “pledge to protect 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030,” The Washington Post reported.

Biden plans to make the announcement during the White House Conservation in Action Summit.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt first utilized the Antiquities Act “to designate Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming.” And since that designation, 18 presidents “have used this authority to protect unique natural and historic features in America, including the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and Colorado’s Canyons of the Ancients.” Presidents from both political parties have invoked the power as a means to preserve certain areas of the United States, according to a White House briefing.

What is Avi Kwa Ame?

Avi Kwa Ame, or Spirit Mountain, is an area of land multiple Native American nations consider as sacred — including the Bishop Paiute Tribe, the Fort Mojave Tribe and the Hopi.

“It’s an area that has been occupied since time immemorial, and it’s home to so many important cultural resources for all of the Indigenous people in this region,” Taylor Patterson, executive director of the Native Voters Alliance Nevada and a Bishop Paiute tribal member, told the Post.

Nearly 1.6 million acres of the Mojave National Preserve are already protected in California, so this area will add to more protected lands through the same corridor, per The New York Times.

Within the newly protected acreage is the home of the world’s largest Joshua tree forest, as well as “some of the oldest and largest Joshua trees in existence” — including one that has survived for more than 900 years, according to the Avi Kwa Ame website.

What is the Castner Range?

The Castner Range is located in Texas outside El Paso and was the location for Army base Fort Bliss, where the U.S. Army performed training and testing during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the Times reported.

Some areas “feature cave etchings made by Native Americans,” as well as historic shelters crafted by ranchers. Having the national monument designation will protect the Mexican yellow poppies, checkered whip tail lizard and Western desert tarantula in the area, per the Times.