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President Biden will visit Colorado next Wednesday to designate Camp Hale and the surrounding landscape as a national monument, according to the Los Angeles Times and the Colorado Sun. Camp Hale, located near Leadville along the Continental Divide, is where 10th Mountain Division soldiers trained for battle during World War II. Colorado’s governor and members of the state’s congressional delegation formally asked Biden to designate the monument, which was included in legislation called the CORE Act that passed the U.S. House last year. Local leaders in Colorado have also urged Biden to protect Camp Hale as a national monument.
This will be the first new national monument designation President Biden has made since taking office. Earlier in his administration, President Biden restored Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts national monuments to their original sizes, undoing attempted reductions by former President Donald Trump.
Two new analyses from the Center for American Progress and the Center for Western Priorities found that those restorations, and conservation actions in general, are overwhelmingly popular. The first study is a public opinion analysis by FM3 Research that found executive action to conserve public lands is consistently and overwhelmingly popular, as well as that specific conservation actions taken by President Biden—both completed and anticipated—are likewise supported. The second study is a media analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress and the Center for Western Priorities that found executive announcements about national monuments, national parks, and large-scale conservation initiatives regularly drive positive media coverage in outlets across the political spectrum.
Taken together, these analyses affirm that conserving public lands is a policy option that both speaks to people’s values and is central to Western voters’ way of life. President Biden's expected designation is certain to be welcomed by Coloradans, and is an important first step towards achieving the president's goal of protecting 30 percent of American public lands by 2030. Many other deserving landscapes, including Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas, await their turn to be the next piece of President Biden's conservation legacy.
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Bold action to conserve our lands, waters, and wildlife is not only necessary to combat accelerating biodiversity loss and climate change, it is also popular with voters across the political spectrum.”
