By Shondiin Silversmith | AZ Mirror
To protect more than 370,000 acres of the Great Bend of the Gila and Sonoran Desert Landscape, a Democratic congressman from Tucson has introduced legislation to establish a new national monument in southern Arizona.
“The Great Bend of the Gila is a sacred place rich with history and deeply significant to all the communities connected to it,” U.S. Rep Raúl M. Grijalva said in a press release.
Grijalva, a ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument Establishment Act this month to protect the cultural, historical, archeological, and natural resources across the Great Bend of the Gila and Sonoran Desert.
The proposed monument consists of 376,963 acres of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Arizona. The act will permanently ban the withdrawal of mineral extraction from lands within the monument. Existing grazing leases and permits will not be affected.
