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Number Of Litigants In Bears Ears, Grand Staircase Lawsuit Swells

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By NPT Staff - March 20th, 2023

Conservation groups have been allowed to intervene in a lawsuit over the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah/BLM file

The number of litigants involved in a battle over the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments has swelled with the addition of a number of conservation organizations opposed to any changes.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Kohler last week agreed to allow The Wilderness Society, Grand Canyon Trust, WildEarth Guardians, Western Watersheds Project, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, National Parks Conservation Association, and Great Old Broads for Wilderness intervene in the matter. December the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes were granted a separate motion to intervene.

Last August the state of Utah and two of its counties went to federal court in a bid to overturn the latest boundary change to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, arguing that President Biden overreached the authority given him under The Antiquities Act. The legal bid by the state and Garfield and Kane counties is just the latest turn to shift the boundaries of the two monuments. 

Bears Ears National Monument was established by President Obama in 2016 under The Antiquities Act following years of advocacy by numerous tribes with cultural ties to the land. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition advocated successfully to protect the cultural, historic, and natural values of the monument. The monument is home to multiple culturally significant and archaeological sites dating as far back as 11,000 BCE. The land is still used today by tribal members, who continually visit it to conduct religious ceremonies and other traditional practices.

The 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, designated by President Clinton in 1996, is extremely rich in paleontological resources, with nearly 150 scientists having said the monument “hosts one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the world,” and that only 6 percent has been surveyed, and that “the potential for future discovery is tremendous.”

But former President Trump flew to Salt Lake City in December 2017 to issue presidential proclamations that sheared nearly 2 million acres from the two monuments. Trump maintained that Presidents Clinton and Obama overreached their authority under The Antiquities Act by creating national monuments larger than needed to protect historic, cultural, archaeological, and paleontological resources.

“We are pleased that we will be able to join the legal proceedings in defense of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments,” said Heidi McIntosh, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “Utah’s misguided lawsuit seeks to destroy the Antiquities Act with a flawed argument that presidents may only designate relatively small monuments that would be inadequate to protect many of the breathtaking features worthy of designation. Courts, including the Supreme Court, have consistently upheld the president’s authority to determine whether and how much area to protect, affirming the president’s ability to protect magnificent sites like the Grand Canyon, which was originally designated a national monument. We will use every legal tool available to defend the Antiquities Act and preserve our natural and cultural heritage for generations to come.”

Stephen Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, called the two monuments crown jewels in the public lands system and that "[T]he irreplaceable geologic, cultural, and biological wonders of these national monuments should be preserved for current and future generations to study and appreciate. We’re grateful we now have a seat at the table to work and make sure that’s the case.”

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