July CLiF Notes: This is What Community Looks Like

Letter From Our CEO

In this issue, we're covering the administration’s accelerated effort to unwind decades of conservation progress: the drastic reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, a sweeping review of wilderness policies, and a rushed timeline to strip protections from public land surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

In moments like this, it can often feel like we're taking one step forward and two steps back. But I'm finding hope in how quickly and powerfully people have come together to defend the lands and waters we love — the crowds who showed up across Utah to rally for national monuments, the Pueblo leaders who traveled to Washington, D.C. to advocate for Chaco Canyon, and the hundreds of thousands more amplifying these attacks across social media.

Terry Tempest Williams wrote, “Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find,” and I believe we are seeing that reflected today as hundreds of thousands of us from all walks of life join together to defend the beauty we’ve found in the world.



This is what it looks like when a movement shows up. Thank you for being a part of it.

Administration Reduces Boundaries for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase

By now you've likely heard that on July 13, 2026, President Trump drastically reduced the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah by a combined three million acres – virtually eliminating them – and leaving those acres outside the new boundaries open to extractive uses.

Why it matters: These monuments protect sacred Indigenous homelands, world-class outdoor recreation access and paleontological sites, and some of the most significant cultural resources in the country. Reducing the monuments by more than 90 percent turns these public lands over to mining, drilling, and industrial development and erases the voices of Native Nations, local communities, scientists, businesses, and others who want them protected.

The response was immediate. The monument reductions have been met with a broad wave of opposition from Native Nations, public land supporters, veterans, elected officials, hunters, businesses, and our Friends Grassroots Network. Over 70,000 people have used our action tools to register their support for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Rallies were held across Utah, in Salt Lake City, and in communities bordering the monuments.

Administration removes Tribal Nation seals from Bears Ears signage. | Photo: Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition

Administration Dismantles Bears Ears Co-Management Agreement

President Trump’s executive orders to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments also terminated the Bears Ears Commission, the nation’s first model of collaborative management of public lands between Tribal Nations and federal agencies. To add further insult to injury, the administration has removed the seals of the five Tribal nations from Bears Ears National Monument signage.

Why it matters: The Bears Ears Commission was a historic public lands management model built on the premise that the people with the longest relationship to this land – and the deepest knowledge of it – should have a continuous, collective role in managing it. The administration’s termination of the Commission violates government-to-government agreement terms and erases decades of collaborative work between the Tribal Nations of the Bears Ears Commission and federal land managers.

“They may be able to remove the signs and take down the Tribal seals, but they cannot erase who we are, our connection to Bears Ears, or our responsibility to protect it,” said Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. “Bears Ears remains a living cultural landscape, and our commitment to this place continues.”

Deep Creek Mountains Wilderness Study Area, UT   Bob Wick

Interior Opens Door to Weaken Wilderness Protections

The Department of the Interior has opened a public comment period covering wilderness policies and guidance documents across the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  This "review" is the first step to weaken foundational protections of the country’s wilderness, paving the way for short-term extractive industries, commercial development, and dramatically expanded motorized vehicle use at the expense of long-term conservation management.

Why it matters: Nearly 200 million acres of public land could be affected by the Interior Department’s review, including nine million within national monuments. The review of wilderness stewardship policies is simply the latest attempt to remove the guardrails that have protected some of America's most iconic and ecologically important public lands for decades.

Caja del Rio, NM | West Cliff Creative

Congressional Committees Advance Public Land Legislation

While the administration is trying to erase protections from nearly three million acres at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante with the stroke of a pen, Congress is advancing locally driven public lands bills that would protect hundreds of thousands of acres, preserve traditional land uses and public access, support local economies, and respect Tribal connections to the land.

The House Natural Resources Committee approved Rep. Mark Amodei’s (R-NV) Northern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act by a vote of 23–12. The bill protects 150,000 acres of new Wilderness areas in Nevada, resolves important infrastructure issues for local communities, and conveys more than 2,000 acres of important cultural sites into trust for the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Public Lands Subcommittee also held a hearing that included Sen. Martin Heinrich’s (D-NM) Caja del Rio Protection Act, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-NV) Douglas County Economic Development and Conservation Act, and Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act, all of which were developed through community-based collaboration and leadership 

Trail Snacks

🎣 Watch my interview with the Flyfish Journal’s Sidechannels Podcast where we chat about all things flyfishing, conservation, and life in Alaska.

🐺 Conservation Lands Foundation Board member, Jason Baldes, is featured in a new documentary, The Company of Wolves: An American Journey, which explores the stunning journey of wolves and other animals as co-travelers through American history.

🏛️ More than 40 Pueblo leaders traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with federal officials and members of Congress to defend the greater Chaco Canyon landscape.

⛷️ Utah athlete Caroline Gleich shares why she joined the Utah rallies to defend Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

🏜️ This month marks 80 years since the Bureau of Land Management was created. See how Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument became a pivotal turning point in the agency's history.

Header Photo: Bears Ears National Monument, UT | Bob Wick