Release Date: September 7, 2022
Contact: Emily Thompson
Coalition Thanks Secretary Haaland for Visit to Avi Kwa Ame
Earlier today, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada to meet with Tribal and local community members about the sacred landscape. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks has joined Tribal and local community leaders, and congressional lawmakers in Nevada, in calling on the Biden Administration to permanently protect the hundreds of thousands of acres of culturally significant lands in the Mojave Desert known as Avi Kwa Ame.
Celebrating Secretary Haaland’s visit to Avi Kwa Ame, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks issued the following statement:
“We thank Secretary Haaland for visiting Avi Kwa Ame, a beautiful and sacred landscape. There is a critical need to protect it, and other public lands at risk across the United States.
“Establishing the proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument would be a critical contribution to the preservation of Native American ancestral lands. It would also help to protect over 400,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert that are rich in biodiversity, history, and culture.
“It is within the President’s authority under the Antiquities Act to take swift action to protect Avi Kwa Ame and establish a national monument. We encourage the administration to strengthen their conservation legacy – and push hard towards the goals laid out in the 30 x 30 initiative – by establishing protections for places such as Avi Kwa Ame.”
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