Sign the petition: Designate Gold Butte a national monument
The scene is tragic: 3,000-year-old sacred Native American petroglyphs are riddled with bullet holes and defaced with graffiti. Ancient burial artifacts have been stolen and destroyed. Free-roaming cattle continue to trample culturally sensitive areas.
Gold Butte, a roughly 350,000 acre conservation area in southeast Nevada that was at the center of the Cliven Bundy armed standoff, has been under serious threat of vandalism and destruction for years. And for years Republican politicians and anti-government extremists have been obstructing attempts to protect it.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other allies are currently pushing the Obama administration to protect Gold Butte by designating it a national monument. We must join them in urging the president to save these sacred Native lands once and for all.
Tell President Obama: Designate Gold Butte a national monument.
After Cliven Bundy and his lawless band of anti-government militiamen lost their years-long standoff with the federal government over grazing rights on federal lands, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which has authority over Gold Butte, was largely absent due to safety concerns. While the BLM is now slowly returning to oversee the land, conditions in this fragile desert area have worsened, and Bundy’s cattle continue to graze illegally, not only threatening sacred land but also plant and animal life, including desert tortoise habitat.
Nevada Republican Senator Dean Heller and other anti-conservation, right-wing extremists in Congress are fighting back against protecting Gold Butte and citing it as another example of a so-called federal government “land grab” by the Obama administration, echoing the very same claims armed extremists like Bundy and his supporters made about these public lands.
In the face of the destruction of sacred Native American sites and environmentally sensitive areas, it’s deplorable that right-wing extremists are playing political games instead of protecting such important sacred lands.
This is a fight we can win. This summer, CREDO activists along with our allies successfully urged the Obama administration to designate more than 87,000 acres in northern Maine a national monument. With only a few short months left in his final term, President Obama can cement his legacy as the conservationist in chief with this designation.
Tell President Obama: Designate Gold Butte a national monument.
Thanks for all you do.
References
- Michael Scott Davidson, “Reid says he’s ‘confident’ Obama will designate Gold Butte a national monument,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, August 18, 2016.
- Julie Applegate, “BLM to resume operations in Gold Butte 2 years after Bundy standoff,” St. George News, June 21, 2016.
- Kirk Siegler, “Dispute Over Cattle Grazing Disrupts Patrols Of Federal Land,” NPR, January 27, 2016.
- Steve Tetreault, “Heller warns Obama against Gold Butte action,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, June 6, 2014.
Originally published at act.credoaction.com.
