Adriana Garcia is a member of the Hispanic Conservation Leadership Council.

As a native Arizonan
and outdoor enthusiast, I cannot get enough of exploring our state’s amazing
and diverse public lands. And I am not the only Arizonan who loves spending
time outdoors and appreciates our public lands. According to the 2024 Conservation in the West Poll, 87 percent of Arizonans support the creation of parks,
national monuments, wildlife refuges, and tribal protected areas.

Related: Grijalva bill would establish Great Bend of the Gila National Monument

Despite the
overwhelming support from Arizonans, some of our state representatives have pushed
forward with efforts at the Arizona Legislature to revoke the designation of
the Baaj NwaavjoI’tahKukveni
– Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and the
Antiquities Act of 1906, which gives
the president of the United
States the power to permanently protect federal public lands and waters with
cultural, historical, and ecological significance by designating them as
national monuments. This legislation is a vital tool in conservation and one of
the most democratic.

Detractors of the Antiquities
Act often describe it as a “land grab” by the federal
government or an abuse of power by the president. However, most national
monument proposals come from the public or a coalition that has identified
specific values and characteristics of a landscape that make it worth greater
protection. The designation of a national monument though the Antiquities Act
is not an unilateral or arbitrary action from the sitting president, as some
want to portray.

Southwestern Arizona
has a landscape that needs and deserves such permanent protection: the Great
Bend of the Gila. Despite being nestled between the cities of Phoenix and Yuma,
many people—including me until last year—don’t know that this area is home to
tens of thousands of petroglyphs and was a critical crossroads for different
people, including Native Americans, Spanish settlers, Mexicans, and Euro-Americans
who have left their marks along the way. 

At least 13 federally recognized tribes maintain spiritual and cultural connections to this land. Unfortunately,
the cultural resources and rich biodiversity in this part of the Sonoran Desert
are threatened by vandalism, target shooting, urban expansion, and
development.

A simple day hike in this
breathtaking landscape is a journey of discovery, offering insights into the
rich history of the Southwest. However, during my visit, witnessing the
disregard some visitors show for these public lands —
seeing gun cartridges, glass bottles, beverage cans, plastic food waste, and
other litter left behind and the cultural resources desecrated by vandalism and
target shooting — was deeply
disheartening.

The designation of a Great Bend of
the Gila National Monument will help better manage these public lands in
Arizona, providing more resources to address the various threats facing this
landscape, including desecration of cultural resources, littering, and future
energy development projects. 

Protecting the Great Bend of the
Gila will honor the Indigenous people who have ties to this region, recognize
its irreplaceable cultural and historical value, and expand recreational
opportunities for people to connect to nature. This is a living landscape from
which we can learn so much and a natural beauty we can enjoy!

For these and many other reasons, I applaud U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva for recently introducing the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument
Establishment Act to protect this precious landscape
in southwest Arizona, and I ask Congress to pass this bill. If our
representatives in Washington, D.C., don’t act, I urge President Joe Biden to
use his authority granted under the Antiquities Act to designate this
invaluable landscape as a national monument so it can endure for future
generations.