All articles tagged with #bears ears
Patagonia has joined a federal lawsuit challenging Donald Trump's 90% downsizing of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, arguing the Antiquities Act does not authorize undoing protections and emphasizing tribal sovereignty and the public interest in safeguarding sacred lands.
Patagonia joined conservation groups to sue President Trump, seeking to overturn his July proclamation that shrank Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by more than 1 million acres (and reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante by about 1.7 million). The lawsuit argues the Antiquities Act authorizes creating protected sites but not shrinking them, reviving litigation from 2017 and signaling a potential Supreme Court dispute over presidential power to alter monuments; Biden had previously restored protections in the interim.
President Trump signed an executive order that reduces Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears monuments in Utah by about 90% (from roughly 3 million acres to 300,000), aiming to open land to energy development. Utah Governor Spencer Cox praised the move as aligning with the Antiquities Act, while Native groups criticized it for erasing cultural sites. The sites were designated as monuments by Clinton in 1996 and Obama in 2016.
President Trump signed two executive orders to reduce nearly 3 million acres of protected land in Utah—1.69 million acres from Grand Staircase-Escalante and 1.24 million from Bears Ears—drawing criticism from environmental groups who label the move illegal and pledging legal challenges, while Utah officials praise the decision. The reductions come after Obama had restored Bears Ears and re-expanded Grand Staircase-Escalante, and legal questions linger about whether the Antiquities Act allows shrinking monuments.