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Our national stockpile of national monuments expands now and then—it’s nice to know that we can recognize them for their importance and memorialize and protect them in this way. Last month, President Joe Biden designated two more historical monuments, as reported by Frommer’s. These are Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and the Castner Range National Monument in Texas. Last fall, he designated the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado.

Avi Kwa Ame National Monument encompasses 506,814 acres in southern Nevada, and its name honors the Indigenous name used for the preserve (Western settlers called it Spirit Mountain). According to the White House announcement, this spot is an incredibly important one: “Yuman Tribes tell that creation began at a towering mountain in the southernmost reaches of Nevada at the confluence of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts.” It’s important to other Tribal Nations and Indigenous Peoples as well: the statement includes mention of the Mojave, Chemehuevi, Southern Paiute people, as well as the Cocopah, Halchidhoma, Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Kumeyaay, Maricopa, Pai Pai, Quechan, Yavapai, and Zuni Tribes. “These Tribal Nations have been here since time immemorial, and the area contains evidence of human occupancy reaching back more than 10,000 years,” the statement continues.

The area contains multiple ancient petroglyphs, including the Grapevine Canyon Petroglyphs which are on the National Register of Historic Places, associated with the Amacava, Paiute, and Shoshonean peoples, which may date to the year 500. Here, you’ll find old-growth Joshua tree forests—including Nevada’s largest known Joshua tree—and a migration route for bighorn sheep. Additionally, the valleys are an important habit for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise, as well as other Bureau of Land Management sensitive species like the Mojave desert sidewinder and the Mojave shovel-nosed snake.

The New York Times reported that this area was only the second national monument to be created for the protection of Indigenous history, and Native American groups celebrated the historic seachange in attitudes.

The 6,672-acre Castner Range National Monument in Texas’s high desert was also designated. In the 1900s, it was used as an army weapons testing range and will be cleared of any unexploded weapons. This area, like Avi Kwa Ame, includes sites significant to members of Tribal Nations, including Apache and Pueblo peoples and the Comanche Nation, Hopi Tribe, and Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. It contains “more than 40 known archeological sites including living structures, hearths, remnants of pottery and other tools, as well as a myriad of petroglyphs and images on the rock faces that make up the canyons and mountains of Castner Range,” reads the White House statement. The designation is intended to protect these archeological treasures as well as honor veterans, service members, and Tribal Nations. It will also expand recreational access.

Combined, the two new national monuments protect 514,000 acres of public lands.

President Biden will protect some 514,000 acres of public land on Tuesday by designating two new national monuments: the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and the Castner Range National Monument in Texas.

Why it matters: Along with the new monuments, Biden is set to announce at a White House summit several other conservation efforts, including protecting U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.

The big picture: Avi Kwa Ame, or Spirit Mountain, is located in the southern tip of Nevada and is considered sacred ground by several Native American tribes.

Of note: Biden will also direct Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to begin a process to designate a new national marine sanctuary for all U.S. waters (roughly 777,000 square miles) around the Pacific Remote Islands southwest of Hawaii.

Between the lines: The conservation announcements will come a little over a week after the Biden administration approved of the ConocoPhillips' Willow oil project located on a portion of Alaska's North Slope — one of the last unspoiled wilderness areas in the country.

Thought bubble, via Axios' Andrew Freedman: These steps are consistent with an approach many climate scientists and activists have been advocating for as global warming dramatically reshapes conditions on land and in the sea.

A wind and snow storm builds along the mountains of the Spirit Mountain Wilderness as viewed from Highway 163 on March 10, 2021 in Laughlin, Nevada.

George Rose | Getty Images

The Biden administration on Tuesday will establish two new national monuments in the Southwest, a decision that will protect the Spirit Mountain area in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas from development.

The president will make the announcement at a White House summit on conservation action at the Interior Department. The proclamations are part of the administration’s commitment to protect one-third of the country’s lands and waters by 2030.

The Spirit Mountain area, also known as Avi Kwa Ame, would be the largest protected area under the administration so far and only the second monument designated to honor Indigenous tribes while conserving public land.

Avi Kwa Ame is considered sacred by tribes including Mojave, Chemehuevi and Paiute. The area is also home to one of the world’s largest Joshua tree forests and provides habitat and migration corridors for species such as desert bighorn sheep, desert tortoise and Gila monster.

Native American petroglyphs line the rock walls along the canyon bottom in Hiko Springs within the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument site in Nevada.

L.E. Baskow | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

The other designation, Castner Range, is located on Fort Bliss and served as a training and testing site for the U.S. Army during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War until it closed in 1966.

Protecting Castner Range connects the area with the Franklin Mountains State Park, which will provide habitat for wildlife including the golden eagle, Texas horned lizard and western burrowing owl. The area also contains cultural sites documenting the history of Native tribes.

Once the area is remediated for safe public access, Castner Range will also expand access to nature for underserved communities that have historically had less access to public lands, the White House said in a statement.

An entrance to Fort Bliss is shown as reports indicate the military will begin to construct temporary housing for migrants on June 25, 2018 in Fort Bliss, Texas.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

The two new national monuments will collectively protect nearly 514,000 acres of public lands, the White House said. Last year, the president designated a World War II-era military site in Colorado, called the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, as his first national monument.

The Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition said in a statement Tuesday that the group was overjoyed to learn about the site’s designation as a national monument.

“The president’s action today will safeguard hundreds of thousands of acres of cultural sites, desert habitats, and natural resources in southern Nevada, which bear great cultural, ecological, and economic significance to our state,” the group said.

Biden is using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate the new monuments. In 2021, the president also restored three monuments — Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — that were significantly reduced by the Trump administration.

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On March 21, President Biden issued proclamations creating two national monuments in Nevada and Texas. The Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, which lies within Clark County, Nevada, will preserve land with religious and cultural significance to Tribal nations in the region. The Castner Range National Monument will protect a swath of mountainous terrain within El Paso County, Texas that had been previously used as an Army artillery range and testing ground. Together, the two new national monuments preserve over 500,000 acres of public lands.

The Antiquities Act of 1906 provides the President with the authority to create national monuments on federal land to protect landscapes and natural features with historical, cultural, or social significance confined to the smallest compatible area. The President’s proclamation brings the total number of national monuments to 133.

In addition to the two new designations, the White House also directed federal agencies to undertake a study into a proposed marine sanctuary southwest of Hawaii large enough to meet the administration’s objective to conserve 30 percent of the nation’s waters by 2030, a cornerstone of the White House’s 30 by 30 plan.

As stewards of public lands and partners to federal land management agencies, county governments support efforts to provide transparency and accountability in the designation of national monuments. NACo supports designations of federal lands that are approved by county governments and supported by stakeholders in the area in which the designations are proposed. In cases where such state and local government approvals have been obtained, continued federal coordination and consultation with state, county, and tribal governments and consistency with their natural resource management plans should be required to the maximum extent allowed by law.

Both impacted counties have voiced approval for the two national monuments. On March 1, El Paso County's Commissioners Court passed a resolution supporting the White House's designation of Castner Range National Monument. Clark County's Board of Commissioners passed a similar resolution in February, supporting the creation of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument and celebrating the ecological and cultural importance of the landscape to the county and its communities.

Counties will continue to engage with federal partners on the Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range National Monuments and other federal land management issues. NACo will keep members informed of any developments.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two landscapes — Nevada’s Spirit Mountain, an area that is sacred to a dozen Native American tribes, and Castner Range, a former military weapon testing facility in West Texas — as America’s newest national monuments.

“Our country’s natural wonders define our identity as a nation,” Biden said while highlighting these and other recent conservation actions during a Conservation in Action Summit on Tuesday afternoon. “It’s a birthright to pass down from generation to generation. They unite us. That’s why our conservation work is so important — it provides a bridge to our past and to our future, not just for today but for all ages.”

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The move will bring more than half a million federal acres under a new set of protections that bar new mining, drilling and other development. It comes as Biden remains under fire over last week’s decision to approve a massive and extremely controversial fossil fuel drilling project on federal land in the Alaskan Arctic.

A White House official called Tuesday’s actions Biden’s “boldest steps to date to protect the power and promise of America’s extraordinary national wonders.” Along with establishing the two monuments, Biden will direct Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to consider establishing a new marine sanctuary protecting all U.S. waters surrounding Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, southwest of the Hawaiian Islands.

Located in the southernmost corner of Nevada, Avi Kwa Ame — meaning “Spirit Mountain” in the Mojave language — is the tallest peak in its namesake Spirit Mountain Wilderness. Tribes, environmentalists and public land advocates have aggressively lobbied the Biden administration to grant Spirit Mountain monument status, and Biden signaled he planned to do so in November. The area is rich in cultural, natural and historical resources.

“It’s a place of reverence, it’s a place of spirituality, it’s a place of healing,” Biden said Tuesday. “Now it will be recognized for the significance it holds and be preserved forever.”

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The Avi Kwa Ame National Monument will span about 506,000 acres, more than the 450,000 acres that tribes and environmental organizations had called for. The White House said the monument designation “creates one of the largest contiguous areas of protected wildlife habitat in the United States, tying together the protected lands of the Mojave Desert in California to the southwest with the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and other protected areas to the east near the Colorado River.”

“This designation will honor Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples by protecting this sacred Nevada landscape and its historically and scientifically important features, while conserving our public lands and growing America’soutdoor recreation economy,” according to a White House fact sheet on the decision.

The new Castner Range National Monument will consist of about 6,600 acres. The landscape is home to archaeological sites and a diversity of rare and at-risk wildlife but is off-limits to the public due to unexploded ordnance from years of military testing.

“The people of El Paso have fought to protect this for 50 years,” Biden said Tuesday. “Their work has finally paid off.”

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“Once the area is sufficiently remediated to be safe for public access, Castner Range will offer unique opportunities for the El Paso community to experience, explore, and learn from nature,” the White House wrote in its fact sheet.

These will be the second and third monument designations of Biden’s presidency. In October, he created the 50,000-acre Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument in Colorado, which includes the historic Camp Hale, a World War II-era military training site, and the nearby Tenmile Range.

Biden previously reversed former President Donald Trump’s rollbacks of three national monuments, two in Utah and a third off the East Coast.

Signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, the Antiquities Act authorizes presidents to “declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments.”

Seventeen presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have used it to create more than 150 monuments since 1906, including many sites that later became national parks.

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Conservation groups that have lobbied for years for the sites to receive monument status applauded Tuesday’s news.

“The President’s action today will safeguard hundreds of thousands of acres of cultural sites, desert habitats, and natural resources in southern Nevada, which bear great cultural, ecological, and economic significance to our state,” the Honor Avi Kwa Ame coalition, which is made up of tribes, conservation groups and area residents, said in a statement.

Janaé Field, executive director of El Paso-based conservation nonprofit Frontera Land Alliance, said the new Texas monument “will honor the 52 years of El Pasoans, Texans and people around the country fighting for the conservation of Castner Range.”

“Preserving Castner Range is about equity through open space preservation and respect for the residents of El Paso, and we are thankful that Castner Range will now be protected for generations of El Pasoans.”

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