Legal Challenge Against Monument Cuts Intensifies
Conservationists and environmental advocates have escalated their efforts to halt the reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. In a recent lawsuit, these groups argue that former President Donald Trump’s actions contravene the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The Antiquities Act empowers presidents to designate national monuments, yet the law’s scope regarding reductions remains contested. Plaintiffs, represented by Earthjustice alongside the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), are revisiting a 2017 legal challenge. This previous case, initially targeting Trump’s attempt to downsize the monuments, was put on hold after President Joe Biden reversed those decisions. The New York Times reports that the latest legal action also includes a nonprofit group of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe members and outdoor apparel company Patagonia.
Tom Delehanty, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, emphasizes the potential risks: “The upshot of it on the ground is that … hundreds of thousands of acres of public land are now newly at risk to harms like mining and drilling for coal that will directly harm people’s ability to enjoy these lands. It risks destroying historic and scientific objects of interest.”
The urgency of the lawsuit is underscored by mining companies, which have already filed new claims within the monuments’ former boundaries, allegedly breaching the proclamations’ stipulations that restricted new claims before September 11.
Utah’s congressional representatives have cited the Antiquities Act, arguing that monuments should cover the “smallest area possible.” However, SUWA’s executive director, Scott Braden, contends that this interpretation overlooks the act’s historical application. “The fact is that the smallest compatible area to protect what needs protecting is a subjective metric, and we think that it’s being used cynically by Utah politicians who don’t like conservation of public lands,” he states.
The response from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s office remains pending, but Braden anticipates that tribal nations, particularly those within the Grand Staircase Inter-Tribal Coalition and Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, will soon initiate their own legal actions. Many tribes regard the monuments as integral to their ancestral lands, with thousands of culturally significant sites within their original perimeters.
The White House, responding to KNAU, suggests that both the Obama and Biden administrations have misused the Antiquities Act to excessively restrict public lands in Utah, thereby negatively impacting local economies and limiting recreational and resource development opportunities. Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, remarked, “President Trump rightsized the Bears Ears National Monument to allow for common sense land use in these areas.”
As the legal proceedings advance, SUWA remains committed to defending the lands excluded from these monuments. Braden asserts, “SUWA is going to be there to defend the ground, and we’re going to track, we’re going to fight back against mining claims, any oil and gas leasing, off-road vehicle trail proposals, and anything else that could damage the lands cut from these monuments, we’re going to be contesting.”
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