September 8, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Sierra Club is raising serious concerns following reports that a Labor Day weekend family camping trip ended with five men taken away by immigration agents as their loved ones and young children watched.
National Monuments
National Monuments
Protecting existing monuments, expanding these cherished spaces, and fighting for new monuments is an important piece of Sierra Club's conservation work.
Allen Canyon area Hand print Bears Ears National Monument
What is a national monument?
National monuments are lands and waters designated for permanent protection by the federal government. They are widely popular across parties. They include areas of important natural, cultural, and historic resources, from geological wonders to sacred Indigenous landscapes to sites that have shaped our history.
Unlike national parks, which only Congress can designate, national monuments can be established by the President. We must fight to keep these places protected! Trump is attempting to dismantle monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante. We're fighting to safeguard these places in court!.
The United States has over 130 national monuments that are managed by federal agencies. While most are managed by the National Park Service, some are managed by other agencies like the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
Canyon of the Ancients National Monument
Why are monuments important?
National monuments are protected lands, waters, or historic sites that safeguard our natural, cultural, scientific, and historic resources and legacies. They are an important tool for protecting public lands and waters for generations to come.
National monuments are also part of our response to the climate crisis. Conserving 30 percent of US lands and waters by 2030 will protect the air we breathe, water we drink, and provide a powerful climate solution. Preserving wildlands will protect vital habitats for imperiled species and save more places to connect with nature. Safeguarding places of cultural and historical significance will help honor the stories, sites, and landscapes that make us who we are.
33
states with national monuments
18
presidents have designated monuments
National monuments protect geologic, marine, archaeological, and cultural sites
Protecting wild places will keep drilling and logging from polluting our air and water, and suck existing climate pollution out of the air. Creating national monuments is one of the best ways to protect public lands and preserve homes for wildlife and opportunities for people to enjoy the outdoors together.
What We Are Doing
Paria Rimrocks, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
The Sierra Club has been pivotal in the conservation and expansion of national monuments for more than a century, reflecting a broader commitment to preserving natural landscapes, combating climate change, and ensuring everyone’s history and connections to US lands are honored and celebrated.
Right now, Donald Trump, the billionaires who bought access to him, and their allies in Congress are waging an all-out assault on our parks and public lands, firing thousands of federal workers who steward these landscapes, shredding conservation protections for fragile ecosystems and places, and seeking to overturn more than a century's worth of conservation history. Their goal is to give public lands to corporate polluters and billionaires to mine, drill, log, and pollute as they please — activities that effectively block access to public lands for everyday people.
We must use every tool at our disposal, from the courts to pressuring our leaders to collective action, to stop this polluter giveaway. Every victory we've won to protect the places we hold dear has been thanks to the grassroots support of advocates like you who have written a letter, called your legislators, attended an event, posted on social media, talked to friends and family, donated, and so much more.
What You Can Do
Defend Grand Staircase & Bears Ears Monuments!
Defend Grand Staircase & Bears Ears Monuments!
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Press Releases
September 3, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the Trump administration plans to break ground within two weeks on Trump’s proposed 250-foot triumphal arch at Memorial Circle, between Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The administration is preparing to start this project even though it has yet to receive final approval from federal planners.
September 3, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In honor of the National Park Service’s (NPS) 110th anniversary, Loren Blackford, the Executive Director of Sierra Club, wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle about how the Trump administration has abandoned a long-standing, bipartisan record of supporting NPS and its mission to in
September 2, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. —Conservation groups today challenged Trump’s July 2026 unlawful decimation of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Southern Utah. The groups filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to reactivate litigation against Trump’s 2017 monument rollbacks and challenge both sets of illegal proclamations together.
September 1, 2026
LAS VEGAS— A federal panel today halted construction on a massive data center near Boulder City, Nevada, granting environmental groups and local residents a stay in their fight against the hyperscale facility before construction began.
August 28, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has spent over a year quietly pressing the National Park Service to give up land inside Yosemite National Park so a private developer can build a road connecting its own property to park land, according to a new investigation from NOTUS. If approved, the corrupt back-room deal would break with a commitment dating back more than 150 years to protect Yosemite for the public good.
August 27, 2026
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A miles-long sheen reported near an inactive oil and gas platform in Cook Inlet is raising renewed concerns about the risks posed by aging offshore infrastructure as the Trump administration and Congress push additional offshore oil and gas lease sales in the region. Authorities said Tuesday that the sheen was no longer visible and that its source and cause remain under investigation.
August 27, 2026
EL PASO, TX — Today, Sierra Club along with its Lone Star Chapter and the National Parks Conservation Association filed an amicus brief supporting the Center for Biological Diversity’s lawsuit to stop construction of a border barrier and related infrastructure in and around Big Bend National Park.Both organizations are represented by Earthjustice.
August 18, 2026
Salt Lake City – Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its latest step to eliminate protections under the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, claiming the move is necessary to reduce wildfire risk and expand forest management. Since the Forest Service created the Roadless Rule in 2001, it has protected undeveloped roadless areas across the country.
August 18, 2026
Today, the Trump administration announced it is repealing the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. This measure conserves more than 58 million acres of National Forest lands by preventing road building, hardrock mining, oil and gas and industrial logging, and was one of the most popular rules in U.S. history after an extensive public process to generate more than 1.6 million comments.