The designation will be the largest land conservation action of Biden's presidency so far, and will make good on a commitment made last November.

Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities


** Biden plans to designate Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument
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Friday, March 17, 2023
Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area in the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. Credit: Alan O'Neill

President Joe Biden plans to designate ([link removed]) Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument next week ([link removed]) , according to multiple reports. At almost 450,000 acres, the designation will be the largest land conservation action of Biden's presidency so far and the second new national monument after the designation of Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado last October.

Designating Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument will make good on a commitment Biden made ([link removed]) at the White House Tribal Nations Summit last November. Due in part to scheduling challenges ([link removed]) , it has taken Biden over 100 days ([link removed]) to fulfill this promise.

The proposed monument is of spiritual and cultural significance to multiple Indigenous Tribes in the area and contains thousands of petroglyphs which will be better protected from vandalism with the monument designation. It is also some of the most biologically diverse land in the Mojave Desert; conserving this area will help protect wildlife and their habitat from development impacts and will ensure future generations can experience and appreciate this unique and valuable ecosystem. To learn more about America's next national monument, watch this short film ([link removed]) , part of the Center for Western Priorities' Road to 30 Postcards ([link removed]) series.


** The tangled fates of Arizona and Arabia
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In the latest episode of The Landscape ([link removed]) , Aaron and Kate are joined by author and professor Natalie Koch, whose new book—Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia ([link removed]) —explores the ways in which Arizona and Saudi Arabia have worked together to promote desert agriculture, and how that work is connected to a global obsession with engineering our way out of ecosystem collapse. Koch is a professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University.

Aaron and Kate also talk to Jenny Rowland-Shea ([link removed]) , public lands director at the Center for American Progress, about three major Biden administration announcements affecting Alaska, including the Willow Project decision.
Quick hits


** Oil and gas industry faces new crackdown on emissions in Colorado
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Denver Post ([link removed]) | Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** Wyoming county rejects billionaire's luxury resort development proposal
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WyoFile ([link removed]) | Cowboy State Daily ([link removed])


** Is the Western drought finally ending?
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The Conversation ([link removed])


** Opinion: The Willow project is part of a larger trend: Energy colonialism
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High Country News ([link removed])


** Opinion: State lands offer conservation options
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Durango Herald ([link removed])


** Finding a campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park gets harder with closure of popular campground
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Coloradoan ([link removed]) | Denver Post ([link removed])


** Denver transfers bison to Tribal nations
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Denverite ([link removed]) | KUNC ([link removed])


** For the first time, Alaska Natives sweep Iditarod podium
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Anchorage Daily News ([link removed]) | Alaska Public Media ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” We Yuchi people are still here and the buffalo are still here, and it's important to reconnect and restore those relationships with the land, with the animals and the plants.”
—Richard Grounds, Yuchi Language Project, KUNC ([link removed])
Picture this


** @deathvalleynps ([link removed])
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Step into a new perspective!

The rock debris that pours out of eroding canyons during flash floods collect at the base of mountain ranges. These low-angle skirts of gravel, sand and cobbles are called alluvial fans. They can be a challenge to hikers but are fascinating when viewed in cross-section. Deeper layers cement together, only to be lifted up and eroded back down over millions of years of Earth’s restless shifting. Sidewinder canyon, along with its many side canyons, is a great place to appreciate the forces that shape our planet.

📍 Sidewinder Canyon

📷Sunlight illuminates a rocky column at a bend in a slot canyon that cuts through a conglomerate of cemented boulders and gravel. NPS/L. Johnston

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