Dear John,
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National monuments are in tremendous danger!
Trump’s Department of Interior recently finalized plans to sell off land in Utah near these historic landmarks for new drilling and mining. These lands are sacred to several Native American nations and prized by scientists.
But it’s not too late to stop Trump from destroying these iconic landscapes. With your help, we can prevent the Department of the Interior from selling off these lands to the fossil fuel industry. But we must act fast!
Save our public lands: Tell the Department of the Interior to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears from drilling and mining!
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are two of our most iconic Western monuments. They’re home to stunning desert landscapes, wilderness areas, ancestral Indigenous lands, and archaeological sites.
The area of Grand Staircase-Escalante that the Trump Administration wants to open for drilling and mining includes the beautiful Kaiparowits Plateau. Tyrannosaurus skeletons have been found in this area.
Moreover, humans have inhabited and relied on the land surrounding Bears Ears National Monument for 13,000 years. It is a living cultural landscape. And before Trump took office, this landscape was not only protected but also co-managed by Indigenous communities with ancient ties to the land.
Now, the Trump Administration has undone that protection -- and cut out Indigenous voices throughout the process. We can’t let this go forward.
No more mining and drilling: Tell the Department of the Interior to cancel the sale of our cultural landmarks.
Two years ago, Trump severely slashed protections for sensitive cultural areas in Utah by drastically shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase -- Escalante National Monuments. Now, his administration is taking the next step to permanently scar these beautiful landscapes.
Soon, Indigenous communities who live near Bears Ears could be exposed to the health dangers associated with uranium mining -- from poisoned drinking water to increased risk of cancer. And hikers in the Escalante region could see, hear and smell fossil fuel development in this wilderness area.
There is no excuse for opening these lands to Big Oil and King Coal. It will harm the health of people who live near the monuments, and it will irreparably scar these beautiful landscapes where people from all over the country come to enjoy outdoor activities.
We can’t let the fossil fuel industry destroy the natural and cultural history of the peoples of this land just so it can increase its profits. Without your help, Utah’s sacred sites could disappear forever.
Sign your name: Don’t let these sacred sites and cultural landmarks disappear forever!
Standing with you,
Nicole Ghio,
Senior fossil fuels program manager,
Friends of the Earth
