Biden Announces Plans to Create National Monuments in Nevada and Texas Transcript

This matters, because when we conserve our country’s natural gifts, we’re not just protecting the livelihoods of people who depend on them, like the family farms, outdoor recreation businesses, rural communities welcoming visitors from all across the country and around the world that matter. We’re protecting the heart and the soul of our national pride. We’re protecting pieces of history, telling our story that will be told for generations upon generations to come. Our natural wonders are literally the envy of the world. They’ve always been and they always will be as central to our heritage as a people and essential to our identity as a nation.

(00:42)
First, I’m proud to use my authority under the Antiquities Act to establish the, and I want you to know it’s a big deal, the Avi Kwa’ Ame… I’m having trouble.

Kwa’ Ame!

Thank you.

You got it, Joe, you got it.

I got it. I just know it as “Spirit Mountain” in Nevada. It’s one of our most beautiful landscapes that ties together one of the largest contiguous wildlife corridors in the United States: 500,000 acres. It’s breathtaking. Breathtaking deserts, valleys, mountain ranges. Rich in biodiversity. Sacred lands that are central to the creation story of so many tribes.

(01:35)
Look, second thing we’re doing is we’re protecting the Castner Range in Texas as a national monument. And it tells the story of the Tribal Nations who lived there and the members of our Armed Forces who trained in those lands. It’s also a place of incredible beauty.

(01:51)
When I was Vice President, I went to most of the national parks, and I brought my family because I wanted them to see them. Going down the Colorado River, the Snake River. Just incredible, incredible, incredible places. But we got to keep it going. We got to keep the faith. We got to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. And we owe to our children, our grandchildren, our great-great-grandchildren, and all to come what we have and what we can preserve.