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.
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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 MessageWashington, DC -- Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is once again struggling with the truth. Zinke has consistently stated that he would not sell of public lands -- including at his confirmation hearing. However, that appears to be exactly what he’s doing.
Washington, DC -- The Forest Service today released a new forest management strategy for wildfire. The strategy has a strong emphasis on science and climate change, and calls for prescribed fire and other proven safety measures. In contrast, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke is continuing his media tour on current wildfires, but focusing on inflammatory language, denying climate change’s role depending on the outlet he’s speaking to, and exploiting the ongoing fires striking communities across the West to push his and Donald Trump’s political agenda.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Today the Department of the Interior released draft management plans for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. The proposed plans leave most of Bears Ears without protections, and open significant portions of Grand Staircase to dirty fuel development. The management plans are moving forward for public comment despite current legal challenges to the Trump administration’s illegal actions to shrink the monuments.
The Trump administration today ordered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to prioritize water use in California for fire fighting. The move follows a tweet from Donald Trump blaming a lack of water for ongoing fires, despite repeated declarations from fire experts in the region that they have all the water needed to fight the blaze.
Mission, TX-- On Sunday, families in the Rio Grande Valley will gather to celebrate the Rio Grande River, a vital resource and the region’s only source of fresh water for nearly one million residents of Hidalgo County. Access to the river will be eliminated by the upcoming wall border wall construction that will seize private land, cut residents off from the Rio Grande and tear through state parks and tourism spots.
Pasadena, CA-- Today, attorneys for the Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and California Attorney General’s office argued before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the Trump administration illegally waived dozens of laws to build replacement walls and prototypes south of San Diego. The appeal challenged the administration’s use of the long-expired waiver provisions to sweep aside more than 30 laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife.
Washington, DC-- Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) office released a report showing critical gaps and failures in research regarding border wall construction that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars. According to the just-released report, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not consider costs of building for various segments of the border wall, which is complicated by factors such as topography and private land ownership.
Last night, the Trump Administration approved a $2.5 billion energy project near Joshua Tree National Park. The Eagle Crest Energy Company’s 1,300 megawatt hydropower project would drain billions of gallons of water from the desert aquifer and harm local desert species.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sen. Maria Cantwell today introduced the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2018. The Act would permanently codify the Roadless Rule, which safeguards 58.5 million acres of pristine National Forest System lands across 39 states from logging and road building. Despite the Roadless Rule’s many successes and the millions of taxpayer dollars it saves, there have been multiple Congressional attempts to strip Roadless Rule protections from millions of acres of public lands.
Washington, DC-- Today, the House passed a FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In conference, lawmakers successfully stripped a number of harmful provisions from the bill that would have threatened protections for public lands, forests and imperiled wildlife-- but the version still includes a rider that significantly undermines the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).In response, Jordan Giaconia, federal policy associate at Sierra Club issued the following statement:
