In a move that will preserve roughly 46000 acres surrounding Csmp Hale and part of the Tenmile Range, President Biden is expected to designate Camp Hale in Colorado as his first new national monument next week. Biden's only use of the Antiquities Act to date had been the reversal of the Trump-era reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante monuments in Utah last year as well as restoring Obama-era restrictions on commercial fishing in the Northeastern Canyons and Seamounts marine monument in the Atlantic that Ttump had removed. The monument will conserve Camp Hale, which was used during World War II to train the 10th Mountain division in mountaineering, which was later put to the test in fighting in mountainous areas, such as north Italy .
Camp Hale will be the 9th monument in Colorado and the first since President Obama set aside Browns Canyon in 2015. The roughly 46000 acres will make it the 3rd largest, behind Dinosaur 's 210800 acres and Canyon of the Ancients 176000 acres. I strongly applaud Biden's move, there's are many many other areas that deserve monument status across this country- Oak Flats, anyone?- and Bidens first monument clocks in at 21 months after taking office, by comparison, Obama didn't designate his first monument until 34 months into his tenure when he set aside Fort Monroe in Virginia in November 2011. As we all know, Obama eventually added 28 other monuments and expanded monuments 5 other times, so Biden has time to drastically increase protected lands before his tenure is up, hopefully in January 2029.