President Biden designated the first national monument since taking office on Wednesday, signing a proclamation that established the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in Western Colorado. The national monument not only preserves the former training site of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division but also protects 225,000 acres in Western Colorado from fossil fuel and mining development. Biden was joined by local officials as well as World War II veterans who recognized the significance of the 53,804-acre area.
Once the place to train soldiers for alpine warfare during WWII, Camp Hale had recently become a hot spot for winter sports like skiing. Its history runs much deeper, of course, as the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument is located in the ancestral homelands of the Ute Tribes who were forced to leave that land as the mining industry took over. It remains culturally and spiritually important for the Ute Tribes. Designating the space as a national monument is important to its conservation but, as I’ve written time and again, Indigenous stewardship is also critical.
This act of conserving the country’s natural wonders has unfortunately faced pushback from Republican lawmakers who argue that Biden’s ability to protect large swaths of land from the fossil fuel industry is somehow unfair. There’s even an opinion piece in the Denver Post that argues the oil and gas industry is critical to continue conservation efforts for the newly designated Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument. The complaints just show how desperate those in the pockets of polluters are to retain power in the form of money and control.
The Biden administration also isn’t blind to energy concerns, having adopted initiatives through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that will help fund and speed up our transition to renewables. Also as part of the IRA is the newly established Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program meant to address the ongoing drought in the southwestern U.S. Under the program, $4 billion will be allocated to “provide immediate resources to communities, Tribes, and irrigators in Arizona, California and Nevada.”
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