Note: the photo is courtesy of Greg Child.
Conservation groups, Indigenous tribes, and the outdoor retail company Patagonia have filed lawsuits over recent drastic cuts in the size of two national monuments in Utah.
On Wednesday, the groups filed suit in U.S. District Court in Washington to reopen lawsuits that had been filed against earlier reductions in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
President Trump downsized both monuments in 2017 but President Biden restored them when he took office. In July, Trump slashed the monuments’ sizes again, this time by more than 90 percent. In the complaints, the groups argue that the 1906 Antiquities Act grants presidents the authority to declare national monuments but not to abolish them in whole or in part.
The plaintiffs say that both monuments have significant cultural, archaeological, and scientific resources. Some fossils found in Grand Staircase are found nowhere else in the world, according to one complaint.
In addition, Bears Ears holds deep spiritual, historic, and cultural significance for Native American tribes, one lawsuit states.
“President Trump’s unlawful actions imperil these and other irreplaceable resources by opening the lands around them to hard rock mining; oil and gas leasing; and other destructive uses,” the complaint states.
Utah’s governor and congressional delegation support the downsizing.
