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
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
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.
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presidents have designated monuments
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.
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.
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Send my message!WASHINGTON, DC — The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to lift a federal court order blocking border construction across the Big Bend region, including Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park. The request seeks to restart construction while a lawsuit challenging the administration’s use of sweeping legal waivers proceeds.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Sierra Club and partners around the country announced that more than one million public comments were submitted in opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed repeal of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, demonstrating overwhelming public support for protecting some of the nation’s most treasured national forests.
LAS VEGAS, NV. — Sierra Club’s Toiyabe Chapter and community members gathered Friday outside the Las Vegas headquarters of Kingsbarn Realty Capital for a demonstration opposing a proposed land exchange in Yosemite National Park. Participants called on the company and Interior Secretary Burgum to abandon the deal and urged federal lawmakers to protect Yosemite’s public lands.
JACKSON, WY — Major League Baseball will no longer consider Grand Teton National Park as a site for a future game, Commissioner Rob Manfred told local leaders in a letter Thursday. The decision follows mass public opposition to the idea of building a ballpark inside the park.In response to the news, Chris Kassar, director of the Sierra Club’s Wyoming chapter, issued the following statement:
JACKSON, WY — According to reports from The Washington Post, Major League Baseball is actively considering building a ballpark inside a national park to host a future game. Three possible sites within Grand Teton National Park were examined, with National Park Service Deputy Director, Frank Lands, reportedly looking at the sites during a visit that coincided with MLB’s.
ATLANTA — Less than one week after proposing a land swap and private access to Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration’s Department of the Interior announced plans for similar land exchanges on Cumberland Island National Seashore, a barrier island wilderness and national park unit off the Georgia coast. Conservation groups are condemning the proposed land swap, which would trade park land for privately owned land and allow for the development of eight 15,000-square-foot mansions up to three stories high.
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.
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.
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
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.
