Aside from the physical impacts to the land and the water, national monument status helps protect the heritage and quality of outdoor experiences for future generations. Throughout the history of the West, our national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas have provided a framework for preserving the unique natural qualities and recreational experiences of the region's most spectacular landscapes. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Canyonlands National Park are shining examples of how it is possible to both protect both the quality of the backcountry and to benefit the local economy. Under Trump's proclamations, the newly downsized monuments would only be managed by local county authorities, with little consideration given to management planning.
As a result, it is almost certain that these areas will suffer from weaker protection of trails and trailheads, insufficient regulation of off-road motor vehicles, unclear signage, a lack of public education programs, and underfunded and understaffed visitor centers. Restored protections to three national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in southeast Utah. These spectacular landscapes are sacred to Indigenous peoples and contain world-class recreational opportunities.
The President used his authority under the Antiquities Act - a bedrock conservation law - to permanently protect these lands as national monuments. Rebecca Vitale Mandich of Palo Alto, CA and Tesuque, NM, was called early to the environmental movement to give voice to the voiceless. Restoring the monuments' boundaries and protections restores their integrity, upholds efforts to honor the federal trust responsibility to tribal nations and conserves the lands and waters for future generations, Biden said. Bears Ears in particular was an important site to protect, Biden said, noting that the 1.3-million acre site is the first national monument to be established at the request of federally recognized tribes.
On July 13, 2016, Utah Representative Rob Bishop unveiled a draft legislation entitled Utah Public Lands Initiative Act , a bill to "provide greater conservation, recreation, economic development and local management of Federal lands in Utah, and for other purposes". Bishop's UPLI draft bill provided protections for 1,100,000 acres through several smaller wilderness areas and two national conservation areas. According to a December 29, 2016, The New York Times article, Bishop, who is among those most critical of the Antiquities Act, opposes the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument. Following the release of the draft, the BEITC pulled out of discussions citing that it was inadequate and a scaled-down version of their original plan. Bureau of Land Management , Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears have suffered the largest rollback of public lands protections in U.S. history.
Despite ongoing legal challenges, a pair of dubious presidential proclamations designed to dismember these monuments were recently set in motion, effectively slashing Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase by about half. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that reactions to the monument's designation ranged "from scathing to celebratory" within the state. The designation was praised by the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition of Native Americans and environmentalists who had led the campaign to protect the land. There are over 100,000 archaeological sites protected within the monument. The buttes and surroundings have long been held as sacred or significant by a number of the region's Native American tribes.
In their proposal to have Bears Ears designated as a national monument, the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition described the 1.9 million acres on the southeastern Utah canyonlands Colorado Plateau as ancestral land. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance described the Bears Ears as "the most significant unprotected cultural landscape in the U.S." The next step is to ensure that the renewed protections for these lands can be made as permanent as the 270 million years of Earth's history embedded within them.
Many national monuments established since Teddy Roosevelt began using presidential powers to create them in 1906 have become national parks established by Congress, including Death Valley, Olympic, Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Joshua Tree and Acadia. "The President's actions will fulfill a promise to restore protections illegally ripped away from national monuments while at the same time ensuring these same lands address the need to tackle the climate and extinction crisis," said Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, in a statement. "A different approach would examine the canyon country region on a broad scale, looking for common purposes that might help to heal old divisions," Swanson continues.
Rachel is a rising 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School focusing on environmental and natural resources law. Combining her interests in the natural and social sciences, she received her Bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Washington in 2018. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest exploring parks and forests has made her passionate about protecting public lands, wildlife, and clean air and water for present and future generations.
Republican leaders reacted to the designation of the monument with disappointment. Some researchers and observers said that it was possible that president-elect Donald Trump or other Republicans might make an attempt to withdraw the designation and abolish the monument, though there is no clear legal mechanism for the president to do so unilaterally. Utah's Republican governor, Gary Herbert, said that he was "more than disappointed" and "deeply disturbed" by President Obama's unilateral decision.
"The President's actions will fulfill a promise to restore protections illegally ripped away from national monuments while at the same time ensuring these same lands address the need to tackle the climate and extinction crisis. It also shows a true commitment to working with the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain, and Zuni Tribes to co-manage their tribal homelands in Bears Ears. It also acknowledges the incredible scientific importance of Grand Staircase. In 2017, President Trump attempted to slash the boundaries of the Utah monuments by 85 and 50 percent, respectively. That attempt was an unprecedented decision that was contested in the courts. By issuing a new proclamation using his authority under the Antiquities Act, President Biden will remove any legal uncertainty and restore protections to more than two million acres of national public lands.
"These national monuments are sacred spaces that provide healing and sustain life. They preserve troves of fossils and ancient artifacts that carry centuries of human history. They protect and connect one of America's most iconic national park landscapes and vast marine ecosystems.
And for nearly four years, they've been under attack, including being needlessly opened to free-for-all development. "In July, members of NDN Collective joined the Red Road to DC, where Indigenous land protectors from across Turtle Island presented a 25 foot totem pole to President Biden. The journey highlighted the urgency of protecting sacred sites through legislation like the RESPECT Act, which would install specific requirements for the U.S. government to meaningfully consult tribal nations in decision making around Indigenous land, water, and natural and cultural resources.
Today's restoration proclamation is a promising step toward respect for Indigenous people, our connection to and the sovereignty we have over our land, and is a necessary step toward building a better nation-to-nation relationship with tribal governments in the U.S. We challenge legislators to find ways to more meaningfully engage with tribal nations, and we encourage advocates and allies to continue using your voice to advocate together for more of these kinds of lands and resource protections. This partnership and collaboration shows Indian Country that we are heading in the direction of true equity for Indigenous people." – Lycia Maddocks, Political Director, NDN Collective.
We're thankful and relieved to see these protections restored, and we're grateful to our partners for their tireless work. The work is not done, however, and we remain committed to ensuring that these monuments and all public lands remain protected for generations to come. By advocating together, we can secure equitable outdoor access and a sustainable future for our communities, climate, and the wild places we all love. His proclamation restores 2 million acres of public lands and ushers in the opportunity for new management plans and safeguarding sacred sites and threatened species.
These actions respect the wishes of Indigenous communities and the overwhelming majority of the American people, who spoke out in the millions to defend the protection of these places. Today, few would argue that protections should be removed from these crown jewels of our national park system. The Arizona representative Raul Grijalva, a Democrat and chairman of the House natural resources committee, praised Biden in a statement, saying the move to restore protections for the monuments showed his administration's commitment to "conserving our public lands and respecting the voices of Indigenous peoples". Native people say the decision to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante was an attack on the sovereign Native nations with deep ties to the region.
Native tribes, environmentalists and outdoor recreation groups filed lawsuits against former President Trump, arguing that national monuments should be permanent and no one should have the authority to revoke a president's decision to create them. But it's clear this won't be the final battle to protect Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, because we have little doubt that industry groups, the state of Utah, and those hostile to national monuments and public lands will file lawsuits challenging Biden's proclamations. "National parks and monuments have become the backbone of the economy in Southern Utah. In the 25 years since Grand Staircase-Escalante was first protected, it has transformed the region into a hub for outdoor recreation. Interest in Bears Ears has similarly skyrocketed, ironically due to President Trump's attempts to remove land protections. With full monument status back in place, Congress and the Interior Department need to manage and fund these landscapes to handle the growing crowds, so they're properly protected for future generations.
Between 2008 and 2015 alone, the percentage of jobs in the region tied to travel and tourism had risen from 37 percent to 44 percent. A study last year in the journal Science Advances found that national monuments in the Mountain West were a net economic positive in local economies, "creating a new set of economic forces oriented around the historic, cultural, and scenic amenities these public lands provide." In December 2017, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation reducing Bears Ears National Monument by 85%, and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 50%. This unprecedented and likely illegal action by the president was made with the clear intent of opening up the region to increased coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium extraction. These two national monuments, in their full, original size encompassing 3,232,310 acres, are crucial to the protection of the access, ecology, and watershed of Glen Canyon and the Colorado River.
Shrinking and opening these monuments to exploitation is an attack on the integrity of the Greater Glen Canyon ecosystem. Since Teddy Roosevelt, 17 presidents of both parties have used the Antiquities Act to establish 158 national monuments on public land. Like so many of his norm-breaking behaviors, Trump's rescission of the original Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments was anomalous.
American history has no other examples of presidents weaponizing the Antiquities Act against itself. One side would have pictured Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland introducing President Biden as he prepared to sign proclamations reestablishing the full boundaries of two Utah national monuments. Bears Ears was first designated a national monument by President Obama in 2016, following decades of grass roots activism by local tribes, and environmental organizations. The area contains over 100,000 archeological sites—some dating back as far as 13,000 years—and the buttes that give it its name are considered sacred by local people. Obama used the Antiquities Act to protect a 1.35 million acre portion, which was reduced to 228,000 acres, split across two parcels, by Trump in 2017 in order to open the area up to resource extraction.
Today, President Biden is restoring the monument to its original size, and incorporating an 11,200-acre section created by Trump, which will make Bears Ears a total of 1.36 million acres. A California native, Laurele grew up swimming in the ocean off the Southern California coast, hiking and backpacking in the Sierras, and getting outdoors at every opportunity possible. She developed a passion for protecting wildlife and wild places at an early age, which ultimately led her to the Pacific Northwest. And Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, and a B.A.
Laurele has fifteen years of experience in nonprofit management and environmental law and policy, bringing a unique combination of fundraising and program experience to Guardians. She has worked on a wide array of public lands, water, and wildlife issues, most recently as Policy Director for Cascade Forest Conservancy. Prior to that, Laurele directed the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides' water and wildlife program and managed government affairs for Wild Salmon Center. David Will was born and raised in the rural Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York. Prior to attending college, David spent summers traveling the United States to study the geology of National Parks during summer field study trips led by his father, an adjunct professor of geology for a local college.
In Natural Resources and a M.P.A with an emphasis in public lands protection from Cornell University. During summers between college semesters, David worked as a Park Ranger Naturalist at Rocky Mountain and Grand Teton National Parks, where he shared his passion for natural history with countless visitors exploring Rocky Mountain landscapes. After completing graduate school, David worked for the National Parks Conservation Association and The Wilderness Society before becoming a partner in an education consulting firm. David lives in Durango, Colorado where he finds peace in the mountains and forests of the San Juan Mountains. A proclamation issued by Trump on December 4, 2017, reduced the monument to 201,876 acres (315 sq mi; 817 km2)—an unprecedented and exceptionally large reduction in the history of U.S. national monuments.
National monuments have been reduced by previous presidents, but not since 1963 and never to such a large degree. Legal scholars have argued that the reduction is not authorized by law; several federal lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump's action. President Joe Biden restored the territory removed by Trump in October 2021. The regions are popular with hikers, climber and stargazers and have been home to Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The Bears Ears region alone is home to more than 100,000 sacred sites and is regarded as a culturally and spiritually significant site for many Indigenous communities today.
The reductions are the culmination of a wide-ranging Interior Department review of recent monument designations and a highly symbolic salvo in a larger campaign to reverse Obama-era public land policies. We're thrilled that the President has restored protections to three national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. This is a victory for Indigenous communities, conservation, and outdoor recreation. President Joe Biden is restoring the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments at a signing ceremony on Friday. The two national monuments in Utah will to back to their original 1.36 million and 1.87 million acres respectively after former President Donald Trump signed a controversial executive order shrinking Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 50%.
The move is sure to be taken as a victory by conservation advocates who had fought to regain protections, but legal battles over the areas are likely to persist. Another bill that would add to the assault on the country that surrounds Glen Canyon is Utah representative Rob Bishop's H.R. This bill would omit eligibility for monument protection for all objects "not made by humans", including geology, rockscapes, canyons, etc. If these stipulations were removed from the Antiquities Act, many of the national monuments our country holds dear would never have been protected.
But beyond that, restoring protections to the monuments is a significant step toward the goal of protecting 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by the year 2030—a first-of-its-kind national conservation target that has been adopted by President Biden. Second, there are indigenous peoples in the area that, again, certainly do not feel free to be as vocal in your cult-controlled communities. Whether Utahns of differing opinions on these landscapes can sit down at a table and come to some satisfactory terms remains to be seen. At the same time, noted Bloch, "the establishment of national monuments was supposed to be a permanent and durable protection for the landscape. It's, like so many things, Trump interrupted that, and so I'm not sure I agree with that framing of the ping-ponging" of legal battles.
"His campaign has been clear that restoring the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments is a top priority and we're very grateful for that," said Steve Bloch, the legal director for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "President Biden's plan to restore our national monuments is a testimony to Tribal leaders and so many other partners who worked for decades to protect these places, then fought fearlessly over the last several years to restore them. The outpouring of support for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante is a loud and clear affirmation of the enduring values we share for our protected lands and waters.
The Trust for Public Land has contributed to the protection of more than 6,800 acres of national monuments, visited by millions of people annually, as they connect to nature, experience cultural treasures, and enjoy the outdoors. These monuments have included projects at Bandelier, California Coastal, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers Boyhood Home, Fort Sumter, Pipestone, Rio Grande del Norte, and Stonewall, demonstrating the depth and breadth of places the Antiquities Act protects and the American stories our national monuments tell. A local to Arizona's White Mountains, Jack Meyer brings to the Greater Gila campaign a reverence for the wildlife and wild places that shaped him. Jack has worked on social and environmental justice issues throughout his adult life and during his time as an Environmental Studies student at Northern Arizona University. In 2014 he began working with 350.org's fossil fuel divestment movement, and has founded chapters for Our Climate and the Sunrise Movement in Arizona to advocate for science based policy solutions to address climate change.
After a year in Tennessee working with Appalachian Voices on their energy democracy campaign Jack is back in the West as WildEarth Guardians Greater Gila Advocate for Arizona.Feel free to send him an email to chat about the work he is doing to protect public lands across the Greater Gila Bioregion. On December 28, 2016, President Obama proclaimed the 1,351,849 acres Bears Ears National Monument, including the eponymous buttes and the surrounding landscapes, using his authority under the Antiquities Act to create national monuments by proclamation. In July 2015, representatives from the Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe formed the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition . Professor Charley Wilkinson from the University of Colorado, who had a "long history of working on the Colorado Plateau", began working with BEITC on a "pro bono basis as senior advisor" soon after its formation.
Wilkinson had drafted the 1996 presidential proclamation creating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In October 2015, the BEITC submitted a proposal to President Barack Obama, seeking the designation of 1,900,000 acres as a national monument which would include Cedar Mesa, Indian Creek, White Canyon, Abajo Mountains, Comb Ridge, Valley of the Gods, and the confluence of the San Juan and Colorado Rivers. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance described how a "historic coalition of Native American Tribes" requested for the Bears Ears National Monument designation to "provide them with co-management authority to protect their ancestral homelands". "The Biden administration's decision to restore protections for three national monuments fulfills a promise to Tribal Nations and reaffirms its commitment to addressing the overlapping biodiversity and climate crises. When Obama established the Bears Ears monument in 2016, setting it aside for permanent protection, he noted the area's "extraordinary archaeological and cultural record" and the land's "profoundly sacred" significance to several Indigenous tribes. But when protections were stripped away in 2017, the BEITT and local environmental groups recorded increases in vandalism, off-road vehicle and foot traffic in sensitive areas, and other damage to cultural and natural resources in the region.
