Trump Illegally Guts Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Again
Unpopular Move Contrary to Americans’ Views as Burgum’s Fail-By-Design Plan Undermining Americans’ Beloved Parks and Public Lands Marches On
HELENA, MT – Donald Trump signed executive orders today illegally shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, which together cover over 5,000 square miles of Utah red rock, ancestral Tribal lands, wild lands, and irreplaceable cultural sites. Trump already tried this once, massively reducing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase in 2017, only for President Biden to restore both monuments in 2021. Legal experts and Tribal leaders maintain the president has no unilateral authority under President Theodore Roosevelt’s Antiquities Act to abolish or shrink protected national monuments.
This is the latest chapter in Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s documented campaign to sabotage America’s national parks and public lands, clearing the way for sell-offs to extractive industries and billionaire developers. The Bureau of Land Management has already found Bears Ears and Grand Staircase have little oil and gas potential, undercutting any possible rationale for the move.
“The most anti-public land and park president in history, Donald Trump, already tried and failed to shrink national monuments nine years ago. Now, he and Doug Burgum are back pushing the same tried, failed, and unpopular effort of carving up sacred parks and public land out of spite instead of protecting it,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “President Teddy Roosevelt fought like hell to protect and defend America’s public lands and outdoor heritage, while Trump has worked to dismantle it. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase belong to Utahns and all Americans, not to wannabe kings and their minions. Doug Burgum’s fail-by-design for America’s great outdoors and parks is an insult to our country’s long legacy of conservation, and the American people won’t stand idly by as the Trump administration dismantle it piece by piece. Save Our Parks is calling on Congress to immediately act to stop this illegal effort.”
Additional Resources:
Doug Burgum’s Fail-By-Design Checklist is Coming For Americans’ Wallet and Land
Donald Trump to Visit Roosevelt Library While Destroying Roosevelt’s Conservation Legacy
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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