In July 2026, President Trump slashed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in southern Utah by more than 90% — cutting even deeper than his first attempt in 2017. These aren't just empty stretches of desert. Bears Ears holds more than 100,000 Native American cultural sites, ancient cliff dwellings, and sacred ground that five Tribal Nations have stewarded and returned to for ceremony for generations. In 2016, the monument's designation created a groundbreaking co-management plan giving those Tribes a real seat at the table alongside federal agencies. Trump's rollback guts that structure without their consent.

Almost as soon as the boundaries shrank, mining companies rushed in with new claims on the newly unprotected land. "Slashing protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments is unlawful and disregards the Tribes who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial," said Charlie Luke, Utah state director for The Wilderness Society.

The Antiquities Act lets presidents create national monuments — it does not give them the power to dismantle one a predecessor established, let alone erase a co-stewardship agreement built with sovereign Tribal Nations. Conservation groups have filed suit to reverse this rollback, but public pressure matters too. These lands, and the people who have called them sacred since long before Utah was a state, deserve better than a decision made without them.

Sign the petition to demand full protections be restored to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — before more of this irreplaceable land is lost to mining.