Earthjustice Fights for
Our Public Lands
Clearcutting. Drilling. Overfishing. The Trump administration is selling out our public lands to profiteers.
Earthjustice’s 200+ lawyers are fighting back to protect our forests, parks, open spaces, oceans, and coasts from harmful executive orders and corporate exploitation.
Presidents can designate national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
National monuments include some of the West’s vast geologic wonders, vulnerable cultural sites, areas with unique plant and animal life, and sites that memorialize some of our nation’s most important historical events.
Approximately half of the country’s national parks were first protected as national monuments under the Antiquities Act, including Acadia, Olympic, Zion, and Grand Canyon National Parks.
The National Park Service manages the majority of national monuments. The Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and other agencies also manage national monuments.
The Antiquities Act does not allow presidents to undo or shrink national monuments, as President Trump tried to do in his first term and threatens to do again. Earthjustice filed suit challenging Trump’s effort to shrink Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. President Biden restored both monuments in 2021, pausing our lawsuits in district court. We have also filed suit against the second Trump administration’s unlawful opening of a marine national monument to commercial fishing.
Steven St. John for Earthjustice
More than 100,000 Native American archaeological and cultural sites, some dating to 12,000 B.C., are protected in Bears Ears National Monument.
Since 2001, the Roadless Rule has protected backcountry areas of our national forests, home to old-growth forests, countless wildlife — and expansive areas for outdoor recreation, including ️ 43,826 miles of trails, 20,298 mountain biking trails, 11,337 climbing routes and boulder problems, and more.
After the Roadless Rule became law, the timber industry tried to destroy it. For more than two decades, Earthjustice defended the Roadless Rule. We won every single one of those lawsuits. And we will continue to defend the Roadless Rule in court.
The Trump administration is trying to roll back the Roadless Rule, which would remove protections for more than 58 million acres of forestlands. New roads degrade habitat, pollute streams, and increase the risk of wildfires.
MotionBoy1 / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Roadless Rule protects nearly 60 million acres of forestland — including the Wasatch Crest Trail in Utah — and watersheds serving as drinking water sources for nearly one in every five people across the country.
Millions of people have already said ‘no’ to expanding oil and gas drilling in the Arctic.
Expanding oil and gas drilling threatens to destroy this irreplaceable ecosystem and accelerate the climate crisis.
“There have been many examples of humans making bad, short-sighted decisions that cause costly problems for years to come.
“Climate change will only get worse faster, hurting the economy and people, if we don't do what we can to let nature balance itself.
C. A.
Auburn, Washington
“Money comes and goes, but extinction is forever.”
N. T.
Prescott, Arizona
“The Earth is burning, fast. We have to have wilderness, and it needs protection.”
L. S.
Medina, Ohio
“The planet is out of time for our good efforts to right the ship.”
T. K.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
“As a former high school biology teacher I understand the importance of science in policy and decision making in our government. I'm afraid too often scientific evidence is ignored.
“It’s time to side with science, not politicians in the pockets of big business.”
J. V.
Trenton, New Jersey
“I've been there; I've seen it.
“These areas are becoming more important, not less, as we lose more and more square miles of wilderness areas and the effects of climate change become more and more apparent.”
M. W.
Lima, Ohio
“As a citizen and parent who cares deeply for our environment, I believe we must do everything within our power to protect it and its inhabitants for future generations.”
P. B.
Fairfax, California
Video credit: The vibrant colors of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Getty Images)
Quotes: A selection from thousands of public comments submitted to the Bureau of Land Management during a June 2025 public comment period on the Trump administration's plan to open most of the Western Arctic to oil and gas drilling.