FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2021
DENVER—Today, the Center for Western Priorities released a new ad urging President Biden to continue our nation’s conservation legacy by protecting more public lands.
The ad, “Every Generation,” highlights how “every generation contributes to America’s greatest idea” that public lands are ours and that what we protect, commemorate and share defines us. It calls on President Biden to now “define our legacy by protecting places that matter and fulfilling a bold new conservation vision driven by the people.”
In the early 1900s, Congress granted presidents the power to designate national monuments to conserve important natural and cultural sites through the Antiquities Act of 1906. Since then, 17 presidents from both parties used the landmark law to designate 158 national monuments, protecting some of America’s most iconic landscapes and historic sites. Many of those national monuments were later elevated by Congress to be national parks, including the Grand Canyon National Park.
“With partisan gridlock in Congress holding-up much of President Biden’s domestic agenda, he has a chance to independently establish a bold conservation legacy by protecting special outdoor places that have deep local support,” said Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director of the Center for Western Priorities. “President BIden has a rare opportunity to bring people together around protecting places we all love, opening up lands for enjoyment, and preserving our most precious resources. America is ready.”
The ad highlights five notable national monument designations under the Antiquities Act—President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1908 designation of Grand Canyon National Monument, President’s Harding’s Bryce Canyon National Park designation in 1923, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s designation of Grand Teton National Park in 1943, President Clinton’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument designation in 1996, and President Obama’s 2016 Bears Ears National Monument designation.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument were later drastically reduced in a controversial and unpopular move by President Trump. Restoring those monuments are top priorities under President Biden’s “America the Beautiful” initiative which is described by the administration as a “national call to action to work collaboratively to conserve and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife that support and sustain the nation, and to pursue the first-ever national conservation goal—a goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.”
The new ad features additional awe-inspiring outdoor places worthy of further protection under the Antiquities Act like Castner Range in Texas, Chumash Heritage Marine Sanctuary off the California coast, Owyhee Canyonlands in Oregon, and Avi Kwa Ame (Spirit Mountain) in Nevada.
In January, President Biden issued an executive order outlining the initiative to protect 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030. Several states either have passed or are considering similar state-level “30×30” resolutions. A supermajority, 77%, of Westerners support this bold conservation goal.
The 30×30 initiative is critical in preventing the collapse of the planet’s natural systems. Global human activity has altered three-quarters of the Earth’s lands, while within the United States, about a football field’s worth of natural area is lost to human development every 30 seconds. Hundreds of leading scientists warn that the rapid loss of natural space is resulting in a mass extinction, exacerbated by climate change. Protecting 30 percent of America’s lands and waters by 2030 will address the climate and biodiversity crises while improving access to the outdoors, expanding conservation opportunities and resources for private landowners, supporting tribal sovereignty, and strengthening local economies.
“Every Generation” will be airing via a six-figure ad buy on CNN, MSNBC, National Geographic and the History Channel in Washington, D.C. and Maryland. The ad will also run on digital and social media platforms.