A coalition of four Native American tribes met with senior Biden Administration officials and members of Congress last week to pitch their idea of a new, 3,000,000-acre national monument near Fallon, Nevada, east of Reno.
The proposed Numu Newe National Monument would dwarf the nation’s largest monument (by land area), Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, at 1.87 million acres.
The intent of the new monument is to protect the area’s cultural and natural resources, tribes say, but has been triggered by the Navy’s plans to triple the size of the nearby Fallon Naval Air Station’s bombing range, from about 300,000 acres to 900,000 acres.
The Navy concluded in 2020 that the expansion of the bombing range would not cause significant environmental harm. The Navy said that expanding the range was critical to meeting combat training needs for modern aircraft and weapons systems, which have outgrown training capabilities over the last 20 years. Yet, expansion plans are on hold.
Now the tribes seek national monument protection from the Navy’s expansion — and seek either for the president to make the designation through the Antiquities Act, or via legislation.
Most of the area in question is desert basin and range land, but the tribes have sought to package the proposal as part of the solution to Biden’s “30×30” conservation target — which by executive order last year, the federal government will try to conserve 30% of the country by 2030. Conserved lands in this case are intended to protect biodiversity and allow ground to sequester carbon.
According to the Congressional Research Service only about 28% of the nation is owned by the federal government, leaving many to speculate as to how Biden plans to conserve 30%.
National monument designations have been a hot political item in recent years, especially with President Obama’s creation of Bears Ears National Monument, and President Trump’s reduction of that and GSNEM. Even Chief Justice Roberts indicated last year that the high court would be willing to entertain a challenge to such sweeping designations under the Antiquities Act, which requires the protection of the smallest compatible area.
This is not the first proposal to invoke Biden’s 30×30 pledge. Following Biden’s executive order in the first days of his presidency, there was a flurry of activity from conservationists to re-package previous proposals as new solutions to 30×30. That included SUWA’s “America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act”, originally introduced in 1989, but is now renewed and sponsored by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). The proposed Act aimed to designate 9,000,000 acres of desert as wilderness, all of which are in Illinois.
I mean, in Utah.
With Congress’ current state of not being able to agree on much, this legislation appears to be stalled for now. But Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter promoted the Act just this last November: “The Sierra Club supports protecting 30% of the lands and waters of the United States by 2030. Eventually we need 50% of land and water protected by 2050.”
– The Byway
Read about more recent monument proposals and designations in Tribes Propose New Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
Feature image caption: Fissure Ridge, near Fallon, Nevada, is one of the areas local tribes seek to protect within a proposed national monument. Courtesy Sierra Nevada Ally.