President Biden designates Avi Kwa Ame and Castner Range National Monuments
Coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge
Florian Schulz
Biden designates the second and third national monuments of his presidency
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) After announcing his commitment to protect sacred lands at the Tribal Nations Summit, today President Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and Castner Range National Monument in Texas. His action honors decades of community-led efforts to preserve significant cultural sites and access to nature, and in both cases safeguards important wildlife habitat and migration corridors.
“Today we are celebrating with Indigenous and community leaders who have fought tirelessly to protect these places that are incredibly significant to them,” said The Wilderness Society President Jamie Williams. “The sacred lands of Avi Kwa Ame will remain intact and future generations of Yuman speaking Tribes will continue to visit their “center of creation”.
Further southeast, the greater El Paso region will have future access to Castner Range which has long been a cherished green space with scenic and natural values. These designations serve as testimony to the administration’s priorities of honoring and reflecting America’s diverse stories across the landscape, including Indigenous and Latinx, while also providing critical habitat for wildlife and plant species to thrive.”
Avi Kwa Ame
Known as the “center of creation” by Yuman-speaking Tribes, and sacred to other Indigenous peoples, Avi Kwa Ame translates to Spirit Mountain in the Mojave language. This ecologically diverse landscape acts as “connective tissue” for migrating wildlife such as the desert tortoise and desert bighorn sheep and is home to ancestral petroglyphs and one of the largest Joshua tree forests in the country.
Castner Range
Castner Range is a former weapons testing range on the eastern slope of the Franklin Mountains and has long been a cherished green space for Latinx communities in and around El Paso and Ciudad Juarez where colorful Mexican gold poppies bloom each spring. It serves as an important migration corridor in the Chihuahuan Desert and plays host to more than two dozen endangered or threatened species.
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Resources
Blog: President Biden to protect Avi Kwa Ame, significant to 12 Indigenous tribes
Blog: 4 reasons for President Biden to protect Texas’ Castner Range
