|
This week, Tribes in Arizona celebrated the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden's designation of Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. President Biden designated the monument, an area of cultural significance to 13 Tribes, using his authority under the Antiquities Act. To mark the occasion, the Grand Canyon Trust released a storymap highlighting some of the resources protected by the national monument designation and sharing what the monument means to Tribal members in their own words. "What’s most important to us as Native people is protecting this land for the future generations, so they can enjoy it and feel blessed by its beauty," said Carletta Tilousi, Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition coordinator and a member of the Havasupai Tribe.
Shortly before the designation of the monument, Tilousi and fellow Havasupai Tribal member Stuart Chavez joined the Center for Western Priorities podcast, The Landscape, in a special episode as part of the Road to 30: Postcards campaign. In this episode, Tilousi and Chavez discussed their efforts to protect the area and its importance to Tribes in the region.
With less than six months left in President Biden's term, there's more to be done. As Center for Western Priorities Policy and Creative Content Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein wrote in a blog post, President Biden is less than 100,000 acres away from protecting the most public land using the Antiquities Act of any recent president in their first term. Fortunately, there are many opportunities to protect important public lands in the coming months, including the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument in California , the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument in Oregon, the Dolores Canyons in Colorado, and the Great Bend of the Gila in Arizona. In his remaining time in office, President Biden has the opportunity to cement his conservation legacy and ensure these iconic and irreplaceable landscapes are protected forever.
|
If one of my students submitted an essay like this ‘climate plan,’ I would give it back to be rewritten. Even my students know that taking credit for the work of others and offering vague statements with zero evidence to support them is not good enough.”
