Grandstaff Canyon Proposed Wilderness -- Photo by Mike Painter
The National Utah Wilderness Team’s primary goal is to continue support of America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA). ARRWA would protect over 8 million acres of wilderness in Utah through Congressional wilderness designation.
Our team’s goal is to maintain current cosponsors and increase co-sponsorships for ARRWA in the House and Senate for the 119th congress to at least 25 senators and 100 representatives for 2025.
Protecting these lands is essential for conservation goals for the entire country. Our goal is to raise awareness and take actions to protect these important lands and the environment. We will work with all parties concerned to sustain Utah’s unique beauty for all generations to come.
Our core team members reside across the United States, allowing us to engage with our elected representatives in multiple states.
Attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante Fails! -- Salt Lake Tribune
Monument’s management plan skirts fast-track attack
Sen. Mike Lee tried to clear a path for scrapping of Grand Staircase-Escalante plan.
By BROOKE LARSEN The Salt Lake Tribune
An attempt by Utah Republicans to overturn the management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's management appears to have stalled.
The move by Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy missed a Thursday deadline that would have allowed the measure to pass with a simple majority vote, according to a coalition of nine environmental groups and the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff confirmed the missed deadline in an email to The Tribune.
"Senator Mike Lee's misguided attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has failed," said Scott Braden, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "This is a major victory for the millions of Americans who care deeply about the Grand Staircase and for everyone who supports our nation's wildest public lands and want to see them protected."
In early March, the Utah officials introduced a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act of the monument's 2025 management plan, finalized at the end of the Biden administration.
"We have a 1.9 million acre, sweeping land-use regime finalized in the final days of a failed President, with generational consequences for rural Utah communities," Lee said in a March statement.
That resolution came after Maloy first wrote a letter to the head of the Government Accountability Office last July requesting an opinion on whether the monument plan counts as a rule under the Congressional Review Act. In January, the office deemed the plan a rule, meaning Congress can overturn it.
The act had not been previously used to attempt to overturn a national monument management plan Under the act, the Senate may pass a resolution of disapproval with a simple majority vote within 60 session days. That deadline was June 11.
"We were hoping Congress would bring political accountability to this undemocratic abuse of power, and it is a minor setback that the CRA review wasn't completed before the deadline," said Ben Burr, director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition.
"However, the underlying problem remains that presidents have abused the limited powers of the Antiquities Act to designate massive monuments, and we are still hopeful that the President, the Congress, and the Courts all have means for reversing this abuse of power."
If Lee pursues it further, the resolution is subject to the 60-vote filibuster.
Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, meaning they would need multiple Democrats to join them for the measure to pass.
"We celebrate with gratitude today that Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's 2025 management plan still stands," said Autumn Gillard, Southern Paiute and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, in a statement Friday morning.
"That plan, for the first time, heeded our voices and our Traditional Knowledge by establishing a framework for Tribal co-stewardship over our ancestral lands."
Overturning the management plan would be "a direct strike against the federal government's duty to consult with Tribes," she added.
Grand Staircase-Escalante has been in the political crosshairs for decades. President Bill Clinton established the 1.9 million-acre national monument 1996. President Donald Trump reduced the monument's acreage by roughly half in 2017, and its boundaries were restored by President Joe Biden in 2021.
The 2025 management plan was finalized after a two-year review process, including an "in-depth consultation" with tribes, said the inter-tribal coalition, which includes the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Zuni Tribe.
The National Congress of American Indians, which represents hundreds of tribes, also opposes Lee and Maloy's resolution, the statement said.
"If critics believe parts of the Grand Staircase plan should be changed, they should say which parts and why," Erik Stanfield, an anthropologist with the Navajo Nation Historic Preservation Department, said in the statement. "They should make that case in public. They should not pretend the process never happened. They should not use an obscure Congressional procedure to erase years of work because the final compromise did not tilt far enough in their favor."
In addition to tribes, hundreds of others have spoken out in support of the monument's current management plan, including over 150 scientists, 125 organizations and more than 50 business owners and leaders from communities around the monument such as Boulder, Kanab and Escalante.
"We've been operating our business here for 22 years, we've made long-term investments in our community. Having our land use plans destroyed or taken away by the Congressional Review Act throws all of those investments into chaos," Nate Waggoner, Escalante resident and board chair of the Grand Staircase Regional Guides Association, said in March.
"We need those long-term permits so we can continue to make longterm financial investments in our communities."
Representatives for Lee and Maloy did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
Maloy said in March that the 2025 monument plan was written "without the people it affects most having an real seat at the table."
"That's not how land management should work," she added.
Garfield and Kane County Commissioners also expressed support for the measure from Lee and Maloy.
"Despite extensive written comments, alternative proposals, and supporting data, very little of the County's input was incorporated into the final plan," said Garfield County Commissioners.
Kane County Commissioners said they wanted Congress to "ensure that future land management reflects statutory intent, respects local governments, and preserves reasonable access and multiple-use opportunities."
During the development of the 2025 plan, the Bureau of Land Management held 13 joint meetings with local, state and tribal governments, as well as attendance at four meetings set by Kane and Garfield Counties, according to the BLM.
Now is the time to share your wilderness story
The Sierra Club is a members of the the National Wilderness Coalition which has inaugurated a project called Voices for Wilderness. There are a number of ways you can participate. Click here to share your own wilderness story.