More than 800,000 urge National Monument protections

As part of an ongoing effort to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands in southeastern Oregon, members of Congress joined tribal and community leaders from across the country for a press conference and petition delivery in Washington, D.C., where they called on the Biden Administration to expand, designate, and protect national monuments and sacred lands.

Specifically, elected officials, tribal leaders, and local coalitions called for the designation of these proposed national monuments: Great Bend of the Gila in Arizona; the expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain (Molok Luyuk) and San Gabriel Mountains national monuments, and designations of Chuckwalla, Sáttítla – Medicine Lake Highlands, and Kw’tsán in California; Dolores Canyons in Colorado; 1908 Springfield Race Riot in Illinois, Julius Rosenwald & Rosenwald Schools sites in Illinois and Maryland; Bahsahwahbee – Swamp Cedars in Nevada; and Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon.

At the press conference, Senator Alex Padilla (CA), and Reps. Raul Ruiz, M.D. (CA-25), John Garamendi (CA-08), Judy Chu (CA-28) and Nikki Budzinski (IL-13); representatives from the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, and Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Pit River Nation, and Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians; and local advocates presented the signatures of more than 800,000 people who called on President Biden to use his power under the Antiquities Act to protect the cultural, historic, and ecological resources.

With only nine months left in President Biden’s first term, the coalition said there was more to be done to instill permanent protections for federal lands and for Biden to secure his record in acreage of land conserved. Polling showed that 85% of voters in eight Western states overwhelmingly supported new public land protections, and four in five Western voters supported President Biden’s 30 x 30 goal.