President Joe Biden designated a 53,804-acre region of Colorado the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, preserving a scenic area of the Rocky Mountains where soldiers in World War II trained for Alpine warfare, USA Today reports. Biden also barred new mining and drilling on a 225,000-acre parcel for two years, pending public comment which could extend the ban for two decades.
The designation, Biden’s first, would allow the continued, uninterrupted operation of existing ski resorts and slopes on the range. The monument is inside the White River National Forest which provided the area with a number of environmental protections.
The ban on new mining and drilling permits in the Thompson Divide area of western Colorado does not impact any existing fossil fuel harvesting in the region. But facts be damned, nine Republican House members including Colorado’s own former prostitute (allegedly) Lauren Boebert protested the designation.
“While Camp Hale and our servicemembers that were stationed there made important contributions to World War II, we don’t support the efforts of extremist environmentalists who are seeking to hijack this historic place to create a new land designation – a designation that literally does not exist – to prohibit timber harvesting and mining on nearly 30,000 acres of land,” they whined.