Cedar Mesa at Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Bob Wick/Bureau of Land Management
Related: Trump Slashes Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by Nearly 3 Million Acres, Center for Biological Diversity Says Proclamations Would Virtually Abolish the Two Monuments
July 31, 2026 - On Thursday, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks issued the following letter:
President Trump
Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
cc: Members of Congress
Our national parks and monuments are among our country’s most precious places. These cherished spaces protect Tribal and Indigenous homelands, outdoor access, drinking water, and wildlife habitats. They sustain rural economies and support family businesses. They belong to all Americans.
Public lands and waters have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples since time immemorial. The recent gutting of protections for over 90% of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments is a direct affront to Tribal sovereignty, government-to-government consultation, and the U.S. Government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribes.
On Monday, July 13, President Trump – backed by the Utah delegation and Gov. Cox – betrayed the American people, with particular disregard for Tribal Nations. The Administration attempted to brutally roll back protections for about 90%, or 3 million acres, in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. This is a major escalation of the 2017 rollbacks, which attempted to eliminate about 2 million acres of protections. It is one of the largest rollbacks of public land protections in U.S. history.
In a particular act of cruelty from the administration and the Utah delegation, the proclamation for Bears Ears explicitly “terminated” the longstanding and ground-breaking Bears Ears Commission (BEC). The proclamation for Grand Staircase-Escalante essentially erases a landmark co-stewardship framework established between the GrandStaircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition and the Bureau of Land Management.
The administration has also illegally attempted to roll back protections for marine monuments in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Interior Department is conducting a review of these places to potentially turn them over to industrial fishing companies.
The below listed Tribal and Indigenous entities, organizations, faith groups, veterans, businesses, scientists, and local communities STRONGLY OPPOSE rollbacks, reductions, and reduced protections of any kind to our national monuments.
National monuments have the unwavering support of the Tribal nations, Indigenous and local communities, and businesses that have worked for years to ensure their protection.
Many of our nation’s most treasured places, including the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty, were originally protected under the Antiquities Act, which sets aside national land for public use in the interest of all Americans. Since Congress passed the 1906 Antiquities Act, and Republican President Theodore Roosevelt signed it into law, it has been used by 18 presidents—an equal number from both parties—to preserve historical and natural treasures across the country. Many of our most iconic national parks, such as Zion, Joshua Tree, and Acadia, were initially set aside for public use as national monuments. Handing these places over to developers, reducing their size, and otherwise rolling back protections shuts down outdoor access, destroys wildlife habitat, and threatens drinking water for local communities across the country.
National monuments create jobs and help boost local outdoor recreation economies, which contributed 2.4 percent ($697billion) of current-dollar gross domestic product (GDP) for the nation in 2024. In 2024, a record-setting 332 million peoplevisited a national park unit. Removing conservation protections on our shared public lands and waters, and opening them to mining, drilling, logging, and industrial fishing reduces access for activities like camping, hiking, hunting, and general nature enjoyment. Monuments also protect critical wildlife habitat, including 1.2 million acres of big-game migration corridors.
Since the first day of his second term, President Trump has trumpeted his “energy dominance” agenda. Yet this is in fact a corporate giveaway. Every place handed over to oil, gas, logging, livestock, and mining special interests is a place where recreation and wildlife are lost.
Oil and gas drilling broke records under President Biden. The United States is the world’s largest oil producer and has produced more crude oil than any other nation in history for at least six years in a row. Eighty-one percent of national public land is already open to oil and gas leasing. That’s over 200 million acres – or twice the size of California.
Even speculative mining does irreparable harm to these landscapes by fracturing wildlife habitat with roads and heavy machinery. Large industrial mines like the ones on the boundaries of Ironwood Forest National Monument and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument can, among other harms, permanently destroy a region’s drinking water and wildlife habitat.
For all those reasons and more, slashing protections of our country’s bi-partisanly supported national monuments is deeply unpopular. Ninety-one percent of Western voters say existing national monument designations should be kept in place, and 85 percent of Western voters support creating new national parks, national monuments, and national wildlife refuges and Tribal protected areas to protect historic sites or areas of outdoor recreation. Among self-identified MAGA supporters, a majority favor protecting public lands. In Utah, voters – Republicans and Democrats – overwhelmingly support Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, with over 70 percent in favor of keeping them as national monuments. In Arizona, 80 percent of voters support the new Grand Canyon national monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni. Additionally, a 2022 poll revealed that New Englanders largely favor the establishment of permanently protected areas in the ocean.
The overwhelming love for our national monuments continues to be upheld. An attempt to sell off our public lands in 2025 led by Utah Senator Mike Lee was an exceptional failure after vehement bipartisan opposition. Similarly, Tribal resolutions and actions; letters from faith communities, scientists, national and local organizations, and businesses; along with 600,000 actions flooded Congress in the spring of 2026 opposing the Utah delegation’s effort to fast-track an attack on the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). That effort also failed.
For the sake of all current and future generations of Americans, these places must not be handed over to foreign interests and corporations, cutting off public access, destroying wildlife habitat, and desecrating cultural sites. We object to the administration’s commercialization of our shared public lands and waters. In response to both secretive threats and overt attacks on our public lands and waters, we say simply that our national monuments are not for sale.
Sincerely,
(as of July 30, 2026)
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The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks represents over 5,000 current, former, and retired employees and volunteers of the National Park Service, with over 50,000 collective years of stewardship of America’s most precious natural and cultural resources. Recognized as the Voices of Experience, the Coalition educates, speaks, and acts for the preservation and protection of the National Park System, and mission-related programs of the National Park Service. More information can be found at https://protectnps.org
Source: Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks