The Groups Warn That No National Monument Is Safe
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — New Mexico Wild, Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte, and Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks stand in solidarity with the members of Congress and Tribal Nations fighting to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments after President Trump signed executive orders gutting protections for both — an action that Tribal Nations, members of Congress, and legal experts say exceeds presidential authority and is illegal.
The Antiquities Act empowers presidents to establish national monuments but grants no power to abolish or shrink them. That authority rests with Congress alone. When President Trump attempted the same maneuver in 2017, Tribal Nations and conservation groups immediately sued, and President Biden restored both monuments before the courts could rule. New Mexico’s own monuments, like the Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, are designated under the same law and stand on the same legal ground the administration now seeks to erase.
At a press conference yesterday, Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and Representative Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico joined Representatives Joe Neguse of Colorado and Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, along with leaders of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Inter-Tribal Coalitions, in pledging to restore both monuments through Congress, the courts, and public action.
“New Mexico Wild stands in solidarity with Tribal Nations, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, our congressional delegation, and our conservation partners against this outrageous and illegal affront,” said Mark Allison, Executive Director of New Mexico Wild. “Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are natural and cultural wonders deserving of permanent protection. New Mexico is showing the country what leadership looks like. Our senators and representatives were among the first to stand up, and Tribal Nations, including Pueblos who call New Mexico home, continue to lead this fight. We will fight alongside them in the courts, in Congress, and in our communities until these monuments are fully restored.”
“We stand in unison with our friends in Utah who love their national monuments as much as we love ours,” said Nick Streit, Executive Director of Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte. “Places like Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Rio Grande del Norte deserve to be protected and an overwhelming amount of Americans agree. This administration continually disregards the will of the people to advance their own agendas. We will fight to make sure Rio Grande del Norte and other irreplaceable national monuments are protected.”
“Once again the Trump administration has reversed protection for nearly 3 million acres of protected public lands within Bear Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments, a 90% reduction in size,” said Patrick Nolan, Executive Director of Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. “This was all done behind closed doors with no public hearings and no opportunity for those communities most impacted by this decision to have their voices heard. The only rationale provided was that these lands are inaccessible for recreationists, hunters, and anglers. This claim is patently false and hides what is surely just a favor to oil and gas friends of the administration. This executive order runs contrary to the overwhelming support our national monuments have across the west. Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks stands in support of our colleagues in Utah fighting against this dangerous EO.”
Tribal leaders underscored that these monuments are living cultural landscapes, not lines on a map. Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, described the land as her people’s grocery store, medicine cabinet, classroom, and church, and declared that no boundary change can erase Indigenous peoples’ presence and prayers from the landscape.
Senator Heinrich, ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the action “another chapter in this administration’s war on the West” and condemned the failure to consult Tribal governments. Senator Luján stressed that “Public lands do not belong to President Donald Trump. They belong to the American people.”
Together, the two monuments protect nearly 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites and 1.9 million acres of world-renowned paleontological and ecological resources. Bears Ears was established in 2016 at the urging of the five Tribal Nations of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition; Grand Staircase-Escalante was designated in 1996. These executive orders strip protections from roughly three million acres, opening them to mining and industrial development.
New Mexico Wild, Friends of the Rio Grande del Norte, and Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks urge New Mexicans to contact their members of Congress and stand ready to support litigation and congressional action for Bears Ears, for Grand Staircase-Escalante, and for every national monument that belongs to the American people.
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