HARI SREENIVASAN:

A decade of advocacy by friends of Gold Butte, local Native American tribes like the Moapa Band of Paiutes, and other groups paid off last December, when President Barack Obama, in one his final acts of environmental conservancy, used his executive power to designate Gold Butte –its petroglyphs along with 300,000 surrounding acres of land owned by the federal government — as a national monument.

The President's proclamation cited Gold Butte's ancient petroglyphs, and its "vital plant and wildlife habitat, significant geological formations," and remnants of mining and ranching heritage.

Nestled between Lake Mead in the west and the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona, the designation of Gold Butte permanently limits any commercial development, but doesn't change existing recreational uses.