Proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument
Date: 01/17/2023
State: NV
Issues: National Parks, Wild Lands
Partners: Battle Born Progress, Friends of Nevada Wilderness, Friends of Walking Box Ranch, Mystery Ranch, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club
Airport Origin : Boulder City, NV
Mission
Fly conservation advocates, community members, and the State Director for US Senator Rosen, a proud supporter of the movement to honor Avi Kwa Ame.
Thanks to the dedication and hard work of our conservation partners, in November 2022, the President pledged his support to protect Avi Kwa Ame. This comes a few months after US Representative Dina Titus introduced legislation to designate Avi Kwa Ame as a National Monument!
The proposed Avi Kwa Ame National Monument contains some of the most visually stunning, biologically diverse, and culturally significant lands in the entire Mojave Desert. This monument designation will protect an essential corridor that connects the Mojave National Preserve, Castle Mountains, Mojave Trails National Monuments, and Dead Mountain Wilderness Area in California to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada and the Colorado Plateau. This designation will protect nearly 450,000 acres of wild lands, creating a contiguous block of habitat that supports world-class flora and fauna like Joshua trees, over 200 endemic plant species, threatened Mojave Desert tortoises, desert bighorn sheep, gilded flickers, and bald eagles.
Avi Kwa Ame is a significant cultural landscape. The entire area is considered sacred by the nine Yuman speaking tribes as well as the Hopi and Chemehuevi Paiute. For the Yuman tribes, the area is empirically tied to their creation, cosmology, and well-being. Spirit Mountain, called Avi Kwa Ame by the Mojave Tribe, is located on the eastern boundary of the proposed Monument. It is designated a Traditional Cultural Property on the National Register of Historic Places in recognition of its religious and cultural importance.
EcoFlight has conducted overflights of the area for years, examining continuous threats of oil and gas, and development proposals like a 30,000 acre wind farm. The proposed national monument will protect the sacred landscape from harmful extraction, mining, and development, while safeguarding access for hiking, wildlife viewing, horseback riding, and other recreation.
