Billy Berler, billy.berler@sierraclub.org
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.
In response, Jackie Ostfeld, Director for the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All Campaign said:
"Trump’s priorities are absolutely backwards. He is preparing to tear into National Park Service land for a monument to his own ego before his administration has completed the required reviews or received final approval. While national parks face strained staffing shortages and neglected needs, Trump is pouring government resources into a massive monument to himself. Sierra Club is committed to stopping it.”
Sherman Neal II, Deputy Director of the Sierra Club’s Military Outdoors program and a Marine Corps veteran said:
“Breaking ground on this arch at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery would desecrate a solemn landscape and show profound disrespect for the servicemembers and families it honors. Twenty-five years ago, the attacks of September 11th inspired a generation of Americans to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. We owe the 7,000+ who made the ultimate sacrifice in the wars that followed peace and protection of the public lands and freedoms they fought so hard to defend.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.