Our national monuments belong to the people of this country. They protect our most important cultural and natural resources — many monuments have ultimately become cherished national parks like Zion, Arches, Capitol Reef, Grand Canyon and Grand Teton. They include sacred cultural landscapes co-managed by tribes and some of our most important historical sites like Hovenweep, Avi Kwa Ame (Spirit Mountain), and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon. But the Trump administration is threatening to hand them over to extractive industries to allow wealthy executives and industry lobbyists to get even richer.
Now is the time to sound the alarm and urge the administration not to dismantle some of the most important places our country has to offer, including Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.
On February 3, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum issued a series of orders mandating a review of public lands withdrawn from fossil fuel and mining development to advance President Trump’s so-called “Unleashing American Energy” agenda. Buried within these orders was a stealthy directive that could dismantle national monuments and open them up to extractive industries. If Trump acts, Earthjustice, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Grand Canyon Trust and our partners will again defend these public lands in court, just as we did in 2017 when Trump illegally cut Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
President Trump lacks the legal authority to reverse monuments created by prior presidents. The Antiquities Act, the law passed by Congress in 1906 that enables a president to create national monuments, is clear in its intent: Presidents are empowered to protect our nation’s archaeological, cultural and scientific wonders. Not to destroy them. Nothing in the Act authorizes a president to remove parcels of land from a national monument or otherwise to diminish or dismantle an existing monument.
In Secretary Burgum’s orders, the administration was careful not to even mention national monuments or the Antiquities Act by name, referring only to the latter by its obscure statutory number. Why the stealth attack? Likely because the administration knows that dismantling our national monuments is a deeply unpopular move.
Recent polling tracks what we’ve seen for years: Utahns and westerners more broadly support national monuments and public lands protections. A Conservation in the West poll found that 82% of Utahns surveyed oppose reducing or removing monument protections; an 76% want elected officials to place more emphasis on protecting clean water sources, air quality, and wildlife habitat while providing opportunities to visit and recreate on public lands. Another recent poll found 97% of Utahns surveyed support protecting historic sites such as Native American petroglyphs, cliff dwellings and pioneer artifacts. People don’t want unchecked oil and gas development or toxic mining at the expense of our health, climate and sacred lands and waters.
The “energy emergency” supposedly driving Burgum’s monument reviews does not exist. In fact, the U.S. is — as it did during the Biden administration — producing more oil and gas than any nation in the history of human civilization. President Trump’s manufactured emergency is about one thing: lining the pockets of the wealthy fossil fuel and mining industries at the expense of clean water, healthy lands, and native wildlife.
By putting monuments in the crosshairs, the Trump administration is also taking aim at the local communities, businesses and tribes who have for decades advocated to protect these sites. Our national monuments safeguard sacred tribal places and cultural resources — many tribal members continue to visit these lands to hold ceremonies and connect with their ancestors. Our parks and monuments also benefit local communities and gateway businesses in Utah and across the country, generating billions each year for the U.S. economy. Visitors from around the world travel to these places to experience their remarkable beauty and learn more about our shared history.
The Trump administration poses a significant threat to national monuments and America’s natural heritage. Project 2025 calls for downsizing national monuments and undoing the Antiquities Act, and the Trump administration and their congressional allies have already shown their adherence to this anti-environment and anti-public lands agenda. This is our call to action on the president’s intent to hand over some of our nation’s most significant public lands to industry — all signs point toward these impending cuts. We stand ready to defend our monuments alongside the tribes, conservation organizations and local communities who advocated for their creation.
Steve Bloch is the legal director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA).
Steve Bloch is legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, based in Salt Lake City.
(Aaron Paul) Aaron Paul is a staff attorney for the Grand Canyon Trust, based in Denver.
Aaron Paul is a staff attorney for the Grand Canyon Trust, based in Denver.
Heidi McIntosh is managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office, based in Denver.
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