Why Conservation Lands Foundation Is Back in Court for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

Bears Ears National Monument, Utah | Bob Wick

This week, Conservation Lands Foundation and our co-plaintiffs asked a federal court to administratively reopen our lawsuits over Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. We did this so we can file supplemental complaints challenging President Trump's July 13, 2026, proclamations attempting to dismantle them. I want to explain why we did this, and why it matters far beyond the red rock canyons and mesas of southern Utah.

This isn't the first time we've had to do this

If this fight sounds familiar, that's because it is. In December 2017, after President Trump first attempted to shrink these monuments, Conservation Lands Foundation and our partners filed the very lawsuits we're reopening now. Over the following years, we won a series of favorable rulings, and by 2020 the parties had completed briefing on summary judgment. Then, in 2021, President Biden issued new proclamations restoring protections to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and our cases were administratively closed – not dismissed, just set aside, with the door left open to come back if needed.

On July 13, 2026, that door became necessary again. The administration issued new proclamations attempting to reduce these same monuments. Rather than start from scratch, we're asking the court to reopen the cases we already built and add supplemental complaints addressing this latest attempt. That means we get to build on years of legal work, an extensive factual record, and briefing that's already before the court.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah | Bob Wick

Why we believe Trump’s action is illegal

Our legal position is straightforward: the Antiquities Act gives presidents the power to create national monuments. It does not give them the power to reduce or undo one. Our legal position based upon the text of the law is that only Congress has the authority to abolish or substantially reduce a national monument. That's not a technicality – it's the whole point of the law. If a monument's protections can be erased by whichever administration happens to be in office, then no monument, anywhere in the country, is ever truly protected. It's simply protected until the political winds change.

This isn’t a partisan fight. National monuments are designated through years of public process and community input. Americans have consistently shown they want more protected public lands, not fewer. The landscapes at stake here hold irreplaceable cultural resources, deep Tribal connections, critical wildlife habitat, paleontological treasures, and watersheds that communities depend on. Undoing that kind of protection with a single proclamation should worry anyone who believes promises, once made, ought to mean something.

Why we're moving now

Timing matters here. Mining claims have already been staked in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in the wake of the July proclamations, a sign that pressure to open these lands to development isn't hypothetical. Acting quickly puts Conservation Lands Foundation and our partners in the strongest possible position to challenge any land-management decisions that could cause lasting harm while this case is pending. We also thought it was important to file before the 60-day deadline of September 11, 2026 when the lands excluded from the monument officially lose their protections and become open to mineral leasing.

Why Conservation Lands Foundation is in this fight

Protecting, restoring, and expanding nature, public lands, and the outdoors is the reason our organization exists. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are among the most significant American West landscapes in the system of National Conservation Lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. When an administration moves to strip away those protections, we don’t sit it out. Defending all national monuments, and the nonpartisan laws that protect them, is core to our mission.

We're proud to stand alongside our co-plaintiffs in both cases, and I want to be clear that I can only speak for Conservation Lands Foundation – our Tribal Nation partners and allied organizations speak for themselves, and I'd encourage you to seek out their voices directly on what these monuments mean to them.

This case will take time to play out, and I won't speculate about how or when the court will rule. What I can tell you is this: we filed because we believe the law is on our side, and because if we don't stand up for these protections now, we set a precedent that no monument – anywhere – is safe from being undone by a sitting president. That's a risk we're not willing to accept.

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