FLAGSTAFF, AZ — The Grand Canyon Trust opposes the U.S. Department of the Interior’s review of national monuments.
On February 3, 2025, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum issued Secretarial Order 3418, which sets a February 18, 2025 deadline for agency staff to prepare an “action plan” outlining steps “to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands, consistent with existing law, including 54 U.S.C. 320301 and 43 U.S.C. 1714.”
54 U.S.C. 320301 is the Antiquities Act of 1906, the law that allows presidents to create national monuments. National monuments, when designated, are withdrawn from mineral entry, meaning that new mining claims are not allowed on monument lands.
In plain language, this order directs Department of the Interior staff to revisit and outline steps to revise protections of national monuments in order to make more public lands available for drilling and mining.
“The Grand Canyon Trust strongly opposes any efforts to shrink or reduce the boundaries of national monuments,” said Grand Canyon Trust Executive Director Ethan Aumack. “Here on the Colorado Plateau, Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni national monuments are world-class examples of natural and cultural landscapes worthy of protection. National monument designations remove the threat of new mining in these places, require commonsense conservation plans that limit damage to monument objects of concern, and set the table for stakeholders to collaborate with the federal government to see these plans implemented,” Aumack added. “Any attempts to roll back protections for national monuments will be challenged in the courts and strongly opposed by the public.”
National monuments, which have been designated by presidents of both parties, are overwhelmingly popular with the American public. During the first Trump administration, nearly three million people commented in opposition to shrinking or eliminating national monuments.
“February 3rd’s secretarial order to stage an under-the-radar review of national monument designations is sure to be deeply unpopular in Utah,” said Cultural Landscapes Director Tim Peterson. “Nearly two-thirds of Utah voters favor keeping their national monuments as they are, according to recent polling. And 89% of Utah voters also said that Native American tribes should have a say over how their ancestral lands are managed. The new administration should respect tribes by keeping the historic collaborative management agreement in place for Bears Ears, and should respect the voters by leaving Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and all our national monuments alone,” Peterson added.
December 2024 polling shows that 71% of Utah voters support continuing to keep Bears Ears as a national monument and 74% support continuing to keep Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument, including strong majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.
“Americans love their national monuments and they want them to stay protected,” said Energy Director Amber Reimondo. “Here in Arizona, more than two thirds of voters oppose rolling back protections for national monuments, according to recent polling. And fully 80% of Arizona voters support Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, Arizona’s newest national monument. Reviewing national monuments with an eye toward cutting them down to allow mining and drilling is simply out of step with what Arizonans want.”
Contact: Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director, (801) 550-9861
Photos, free for media use
Bears Ears National Monument photos
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument photos
Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument photos
