Biden designates Camp Hale in Colorado as his first national monument

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs for Puerto Rico from the White House in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2022. 

President Joe Biden on Wednesday designated a World War II-era military site in Colorado as a national monument, a move that will protect the historic region from development.

According to a White House fact sheet, Camp Hale was the location of the 10th Mountain Division's training in the 1940s. More than 50,000 acres of the Camp Hale- Continental Divide National Monument will be protected for wildlife.

The White House said that the action would honor veterans, Indigenous people and their legacy by protecting the Colorado landscape. Some of America's most cherished lands and waters are being protected by the president.

The administration proposed a mineral withdrawal for Colorado's Thompson Divide, a large region of mountains, lakes and forests. Over 200,000 acres of land would be protected from new mining or oil and gas drilling if the withdrawal were to happen.

The Interior Department and the Forest Service will conduct an environmental analysis on the impacts of stopping energy development in the Thompson Divide for two decades.

Winds whip the snow around Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, in Camp Hale, Colo. Top Colorado Democrats are asking President Joe Biden to declare a new national monument in the heart of the state’s Rocky Mountains.

The Thompson Divide area is protected thanks to a coalition of hunters, ranchers, farmers, outdoor enthusiasts and community leaders.

The Biden-Harris administration is taking an important and sensible step to ensure that we have the science and public input necessary to make informed decisions about sustainable management of public lands.

The White House said that Biden would be in Colorado to announce the establishment of the monument.

In a letter to the president in September, House Republicans argued that designating Camp Hale as a national monument would impose severe land-use restrictions on the area.

The president restored protections to Utah's Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument after the Trump administration reduced those protections in 2019.

"This is a critical step towards ensuring these public lands do not succumb to the same destruction that so many of our other treasured places have," said Michael Freeman, a senior attorney at Earthjustice.