Protecting existing monuments, expanding these cherished spaces, and fighting for new monuments is an important piece of Sierra Club's conservation work.
Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument
National monuments are lands and waters designated for permanent protection by the federal government. They include areas of important natural, cultural, and historic resources, from geological wonders to sacred Indigenous landscapes to sites that have shaped the history of the United States.
Unlike national parks, which only Congress can designate, national monuments can either be established by the President under the authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act or by an act of Congress.
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.
33
18
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.
10% complete
Send My MessageOakland, CA— Today, Sierra Magazine released its third episode of The Overstory, a new podcast that offers the stories of changemakers, communicators, and people who see the world in a different light and from a new angle. The eight-minute features are first-hand, emotional accounts of our nation’s most urgent environmental issues. To listen to the first episodes of Overstory, click here. Select producers and story subjects available for interview.
The Department of the Interior has announced plans to review the management of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska with the goal of opening up more land to oil and gas drilling and pipelines.
The Department of the Interior has announced plans to review the management of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska with the goal of opening up more land to oil and gas drilling and pipelines.
Today, new revelations from the Washington Post revealed that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with a billionaire developer who has business before the government at the request of his college friend and former football teammate, Ed Hagerty. Zinke is currently the subject of dozens of scandals.
Las Vegas, Nevada (October 18, 2018) - Conservation organizations are outraged by the US Air Force’s lack of respect to the public interest with the release of its final Environmental Impact Statement on a plan to expand its Nevada Test and Training Range into the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The military already controls 2.9 million acres in Nevada with no public access allowed, and this proposal would shut the public out of another 300,000 acres.
Las Vegas, Nevada (October 18, 2018) - Conservation organizations are outraged by the US Air Force’s lack of respect to the public interest with the release of its final Environmental Impact Statement on a plan to expand its Nevada Test and Training Range into the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The military already controls 2.9 million acres in Nevada with no public access allowed, and this proposal would shut the public out of another 300,000 acres.
Zinke Keeps Giving Government Contracts to Whitefish Energy, Turns His Back on a Veteran, And His Super PAC Mocks Sexual Assault Survivors, All While Angling for a New Job
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today advanced a host of public lands legislation including, Restore Our Parks, Land and Water Conservation Fund, Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks Conservation Act, Every Kid Outdoors Act and the Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Tonight will kick off the first of three public meetings on a proposed management plan for Bears Ears National Monument. The plan leaves most of Bears Ears without protections and comes despite current legal challenges to the Trump administration’s illegal actions to shrink the monuments.
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz.— The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the mining industry’s challenge to the 20-year ban on new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.
