Don’t let Bears Ears and Grand Staircase be mined

Don’t let Bears Ears and Grand Staircase be mined

Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments’ millions of square acres of red rock formations, twisting canyons and pristine desert wilderness were once protected land. Now, these special places could be torn apart to mine and drill for minerals and gas.1

Environmental Action Impact: Bears Ears National Monument (Photo: BLM)
 

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Drilling in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante?

That’s the Trump administration’s new plan for wide swathes of one of the most beautiful corners of our country. When the size of the two national monuments was shrunk two years ago, we assumed they had something like this in mind.

Now, we need to make our voices heard. Add your name to oppose the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s plans for mining and drilling in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.

These landscapes could be changed forever.

Once the machines move in, these southern Utah landscapes would be changed forever. BLM wants to begin “chaining” in Bears Ears — or dragging anchor chain through thousands of acres of forest and ripping fragile shrubs and trees up by the roots.2

Meanwhile, the plan for Grand Staircase involves carving up a million acres once under federal protection to extract oil, gas and uranium.

Bighorn sheep, bears, birds and other wildlife are at risk.

Breathtaking landscapes aren’t all we stand to lose. The monuments are also home to fragile populations of bighorn sheep, bears and pumas.3 Hundreds of species of birds such as the Mexican spotted owl and peregrine falcon soar over the monuments.4

These are precious places: biodiverse, beautiful and culturally significant. In a world in which few places remain untouched by extraction, destroying these for short-term profit makes no sense.

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  1. Brian Maffly, “New Grand Staircase plans greenlight mining on lands Trump stripped from Utah monument,” The Salt Lake Tribune, August 24, 2019.
  2. Darryl Fears and Juliet Eilperin, “Trump officials say a new plan will protect Bears Ears. Others call it ‘salt in an open wound,'” The Washington Post, July 27, 2019.
  3. Joe Fox, Lauren Tierney, Seth Blanchard and Gabriel Florit, “What Remains of Bears Ears,” The Washington Post, April 2, 2019.
  4. “Presidential Proclamation — Establishment of the Bears Ears National Monument,” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, December 28, 2016.