The year was 2017… the first Trump Administration.
I was 19 years old, attending the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. It was an energetic place to be at the time, Utah being ground zero for the new administration to test the waters of the most significant reversal of national monument protections in U.S. history.
That year, in Trump’s traditional farce-like fashion, the administration claimed the creation of Bears Ears National Monument, along with Grand Staircase-Escalante, was broad government overreach and harmful to, well… everyone. In response, Bears Ears National Monument was shrunk by 85%, and Grand Staircase-Escalante by about half. Numbers that still give me chills (notably, the Biden Administration restored the size of the monuments).
Despite actively working to dismantle many other Obama-era land and environmental policies during those years, none generated as much public outrage as the “monuments review.” Millions of people across the country organized against the effort. Lawsuits were filed by tribal nations, major organizations, businesses (such as Patagonia), and others. The fight for Bears Ears became one of the highest-profile land battles in the history of the colonial public lands system.
Fast forward to 2025.
We’ve entered our second Trump era, and this time around, they came prepared for battle. What we’ve seen in the first 100 days of this administration amounts to the most devastating climate, land, water, and endangered species policies ever seen in more than a century.
They are waging war on the land, water, and air that sustain us. This country - its people, its land- is being handed over to extractive corporations and billionaires for profit. We saw what happened during the first administration, and this time, it’s even worse.
On Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an executive order declaring that the country was in an energy emergency. Under this order, the administration has been working tirelessly to dismantle environmental protections across the board to promote energy production (specifically fossil fuels, not clean energy), from expediting environmental review processes to, you guessed it: "Liberating our federal lands and waters for oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing,” said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields.
This brings us to round two of the “monument review” process.
This time, Trump has eyes not only on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase (AZ monuments were on the chopping block the first time around too- actually, all monuments est. after January 1st, 1996 and over 100,000 acres were considered), but also on Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni and Ironwood Forest National Monuments in Arizona, Chuckwalla National Monument in California, and Organ Mountains–Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico. Notably, tribally-led monuments seem to be the highest priority for desecration under this administration, and its possible there will be more monuments targeted going forward.
However, it’s not just shrinking monuments this time…
In a 50-page legal opinion published by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on May 27, 2025, the Trump Administration twisted well-established interpretations of the law, specifically the Antiquities Act, to claim that presidents can abolish federal protections and designations altogether, establishing a dangerous and harmful precedent if followed through with.
We’ve seen what happens when private profit takes precedence over public benefit and protection: displaced communities, polluted aquifers, species extinction, toxic landscapes, cultural genocide, heritage sites destroyed, and health crises that span generations.
So, do we let the land be carved up for the profit of a few big corporations? Or do we take a stand?
We stand with Tribal Nations.
We stand with the land.
We stand with the water.
We stand with the plants and animals.
We stand with our communities.
We stand with future generations to protect these lands for generations to come.
Oil, uranium, coal… will not save us.
Clean water, air, and healthy communities will.