Friend — we have huge updates to share on the fight to restore protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine national monument off the east coast.

Trump had gutted protections for these monuments, reducing Bears Ears by a staggering 85%. Since then, the damage to these areas, particularly in Bears Ears, has been horrifying:

Trash left uncollected.
Fossils and remnants of Native American settlements looted.
Graffiti scribbled over ancient rock art.
These areas are now also under serious threat of being mined for uranium.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has just returned from a visit to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. We are counting on President Biden to fulfil his campaign promises and restore the safeguards that Trump destroyed, and when that happens, it could set off a major showdown with Congress, where anti-parks Utah Republicans and their Big Polluter backers are resistant to restoring the protections.

The environmental movement needs to show up right now. We have a real shot at restoring protections to these national monuments, but success is going to depend on grassroots pressure. To keep our campaigns going, we're trying to raise $20,000 before the end of the month.

Can you pitch in? This fight is developing quickly — if we can't scale up ASAP, we're going to miss our window to make a difference. Please, donate $5 today »

The fight isn't going to end with these three monuments. Shortly after inauguration, President Biden issued an executive order calling for the conservation of 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.The plan has a real shot at making access to nature more equitable, so that all people in this country have access to green spaces, regardless of race or zip code.

With Deb Haaland running the Interior Department, we have a conservation champion driving this plan forward.

Right now, only 12% of US lands are permanently protected, and about 23% of coastal waters. We're talking about doubling the amount of protected lands — working with local communities to expand and create new national and state parks and other protected landscapes, and significantly expanding the ocean areas off-limits to drilling and other threats.

This could be the most significant conservation effort in US history, but not if we hit roadblocks now with Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.

We're asking for your help, friend. If everyone reading this email pitched in — even $5 — we'd blow through our fundraising goal in minutes. So we're asking:

Pitch in. Help hit our $20,000 goal. Even $5 is enough to make a difference »

Let's keep the pressure up. Together, we can win this.

Onward,

Gene Karpinski
President
League of Conservation Voters