Parks Coalition Presses Biden To Establish 6 New Protected Monuments

Castner Range, a former Army artillery training facility in West Texas, is largely off-limits to the public due to unexploded ordnance. Brian Wancho via Getty Images An organization representing current and former National Park Service employees is calling for President Joe Biden to use his executive power to establish several new national monuments around the country and advance his goal of conserving 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. TheCoalition to Protect America’s National Parks published a report Tuesday that identifies six “national treasures in need of protection” and urges Biden to use the Antiquities Act of 1906 to make it happen. “We just hope to get the conversation started and encourage the admin, with the time they have left, to move forward.” The coalition’s 13-page report, titled “In Support of the Antiquities Act: The Lasting Impacts of National Monuments,” does not advocate for specific monument acreages or quantify how much closer new designations would get the Biden administration to its 30x30 target. In addition to Tuesday’s report, more than 300 members of the coalition signed on to a letter Tuesday calling for the administration to create new monuments and “continue to build an inclusive and resilient conservation legacy that reflects the diversity of our natural heritage and permanently protects our lands and waters.” “Many of us have served at national parks across the country that were first protected as national monuments,” says the letter, addressed to Biden, Haaland and Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality.