SALT LAKE CITY — Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and several national conservation organizations are seeking to protect President Biden's restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments by intervening in in the lawsuits filed by the State of Utah challenging this action.
Utah is also attempting to challenge the use of the Antiquities Act to protect such lands as being unlawful.
In 2017, President Trump shrunk the boundaries of Bears Ears by 85 percent and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 47 percent.
These groups contend that these lands must be protected, as they contain dinosaur fossils, unique geologic features, and Native American cultural sites.
The Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Pueblo of Zuni have also sought to intervene in the lawsuits.
"Without the Antiquities Act, we would not have some of our most beloved national parks, including Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Olympic, Zion and Acadia," said Heidi McIntosh, the Earthjustice managing attorney representing the conservation groups.
"We will fight alongside our partners and clients to ensure the Antiquities Act is preserved for future generations to experience our most beloved and historic places.”
President Theodore Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to protect 800,000 acres in Arizona when he declared the Grand Canyon a national monument, an action upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The remarkable Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments are the crown jewels of America’s public lands,” said Stephen Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
“It’s terribly disappointing that rather than embrace these monuments as the very best our state has to offer the world, Utah’s Governor Cox has attacked them and hopes to see the monuments undone."
Bears Ears National Monument is home to ancient cliff dwellings and more than 100,000 Native American cultural sites.
Tribes continue to visit the lands to hold ceremonies; its monument designation has a plan for co-management by federal agencies and the five tribes with sacred cultural interests in the lands.
Grand Staircase-Escalante is home to dinosaur fossils not found anywhere else in the world.
It was established as a national monument in 1996; in the two decades since paleontologists have unearthed fossils from 21 previously undiscovered dinosaur species.
