Utah
Bears Ears National Monument originally spanned 1.35 million acres, protecting one of the most significant living cultural landscapes in the country with more than 100,000 rock art and other cultural sites sacred to Indigenous cultures. Deep sandstone canyons, desert mesas and forested highlands draw visitors from around the globe.
85%
Now Open to Oil & Gas
In 2017, the Trump administration issued a proclamation illegally slashing the size of the Monument by 85% and on February 6, 2020, a management plan took effect that opens that 85% to drilling and mining.
The plan ignores Tribes and a current federal court case—Conservation Lands Foundation is among the plaintiffs—challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to slash the Monument’s size.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
Utah
Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument originally included 1.9 million acres of multicolored cliffs, plateaus, mesas, buttes, pinnacles and canyons that are a world-class hotbed of paleontological research (that’s dinosaurs!) It's also part of a cultural landscape that connects Indigenous communities to their ancestors.
47%
Now Open to Mining
In 2017, the Trump administration issued a proclamation illegally slashing the size of the Monument by nearly half.
The final management plan allows drilling and mining in areas formerly protected as part of the Monument, threatening thriving local business owners who have built their tourist, recreation and conservation-based livelihoods around the 24-year old Monument.
Despite a federal court case in which Conservation Lands Foundation is among the plaintiffs, the plan took effect on February 6, 2020. We’re working with our partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
Utah
Red Cliffs National Conservation Area drives a vibrant outdoor recreation and tourism economy, and protects the threatened Mojave desert tortoise. These public lands are just 45 miles from Zion National Park and draw visitors from all over the state, country and world.
7
previous attempts
Local and state officials have tried 7 previous times — and failed — to build an ill-conceived highway through Red Cliffs.
Local and state officials are again ignoring practical alternatives and pushing to allow a highway through the heart of Red Cliffs, undermining the quality of life that draws visitors and residents to the region, damaging prime habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise—the reason the area was originally protected—and setting a terrible precedent for National Conservation Areas throughout the country.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We're working with the following partner to make sure a highway does not go through this Conservation Area:
Alaska
At 24 million acres, the Western Arctic is our country’s largest intact piece of public land--and its largest remaining unprotected wilderness. It's been home to Indigenous communities and the animals they depend on for millennia.
7
Million MORE acres to be Opened to Oil & Gas
The administration’s proposed plan opens 11 million MORE acres — another 25% — including fragile areas like Teshekpuk Lake that are critical to wildlife and Indigenous communities, and were set aside from development years ago.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
California
Over 10.5 million acres of the California Desert are managed by the Bureau of Land Management under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Finalized after nearly a decade of input from an unprecedented array of stakeholders, the current management plan balances conservation with renewable energy development.
4.2
million acres at risk for mining & drilling
The administration is expected to open more than four million acres of conservation land to development, undermining public consensus, conservation designations, and recreational access. The administration’s expected changes to the plan will roll back protections for previously protected wildlife habitat and threatened species—allowing mining and other destructive uses in some of the California Desert’s most sensitive areas.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We're working with the following partner to stop any changes to the current plan:
Colorado
Browns Canyon National Monument is the backbone of a thriving outdoor recreation economy—including whitewater boating, climbing, mountain biking and hunting—and is home to a range of wildlife including bighorn sheep, golden eagles and elk.
35
years
Locals worked for 35 years to protect Browns Canyon until it was finally designated in February 2015. The proposed management plan sets a dangerous precedent for protected lands across the West by ignoring local input and minimizing conservation protections in a national monument.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
Colorado
The North Fork Valley is known as Colorado’s “Farm-to-Table Capital,” with more than 1,250 farms contributing $55 million in direct sales. People in the area have built a thriving economy based largely on recreation, agriculture and ag tourism.
870k
Acres to be opened to oil & gas
The Bureau of Land Management is planning to open over 870,000 acres to oil and gas leasing, eliminating existing protections for critically important areas and ignoring a more moderate alternative plan guided by local input.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
Montana
With the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument and Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge at its heart, and surrounded by intact backcountry, the Bureau of Land Management’s Lewistown District oversees some of the greatest public wildlife habitat in the world and one of America’s strongest hunting heritages.
90%
To be opened to oil & gas
The proposed plan calls for opening more than 90% of this area to oil and gas drilling. The plan fails to protect roadless areas and lands with wilderness characteristics. The world-class big game habitat here can only survive if the public lands remain intact and undeveloped.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
Washington
The San Juan Islands National Monument is a uniquely beautiful archipelago in Washington State's Puget Sound that draws visitors from all over the world for its scenery, kayaking and marine wildlife watching.
1,100
acres of wildlife protections ignored
1,100 acres of rocks, islands and pinnacles that make up the San Juan Islands National Monument are threatened by the current management plan—along with local communities and their economies.
The proposed management plan prioritizes “other uses” over conservation, alarming local residents and creating an “anything goes” situation in sensitive areas that may never recover—risking the destruction of the very values that generate over $232 million in visitor spending1.
Our Friends Grassroots Network Partners
We’re working with the following partners to prevent harm on the ground and overturn this plan:
