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President Biden is expected to designate a historic military site in Colorado as a new national monument in the coming weeks. Though it is officially known as Camp Hale, the site was referred to as "Camp Hell" by soldiers who trained there during World War II for the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division. The site housed up to 17,000 troops at an elevation of 9,200 feet and was ideal for training in skiing, snowshoeing, and rock climbing, helpful skills for soldiers battling the Axis powers in Italy.
President Biden has yet to create a new national monument since taking office. Doing so with the establishment of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument would circumvent the legislative gridlock that has stood in the way of this and other avidly supported land protection proposals across the country. Proponents are urging Biden to protect the area by using the Antiquities Act, including Colorado's senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper. “There are so many conservation bills languishing in Congress that have local support, but it is hard to get anything through the Senate when it comes to land protection. This is exactly why the Antiquities Act exists,” said Center for Western Priorities deputy director Aaron Weiss.
Since the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, 17 presidents in both parties have used the law to designate 158 national monuments. If President Biden intends to reach his goal of protecting 30% of America's lands and waters by 2030 he must start acting on the strong local support on the ground to designate places like Camp Hale, Castner Range, and Avi Kwa Ame as national monuments.
Judge reinstates lease on sacred tribal lands in Montana
Last Friday a federal court ordered the Interior Department to reinstate a 6,000-acre oil and gas lease on land sacred to the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, reversing the agency's previous decision to rescind it. This most recent ruling in favor of the lease holder is the latest twist in decades of legal battles over drilling in the Badger-Two Medicine area and the tribe's right to preserve land at the heart of their cultural and spiritual practice. Judge Richard Leon of the D.C. District Court ruled that the Interior secretary had to find a legal defect in order to cancel a lease and that the agency had complied with environmental and cultural resource analysis requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act when Interior first issued the lease in 1982. Opponents are vowing to continue to oppose fossil fuel development in the area.
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We have this sort of two-headed monster. One side is a changing environment, and the atmosphere being altered by climate change. But if you look at that in isolation you forget about the other side: Society is changing, our cities are changing, our land is changing. All these conditions coming together creates a more disaster-prone society.”
