National Monuments At Risk
Aug. 13, 2020
Over the past four years, the Trump administration has launched an unprecedented assault on public lands. National monuments What is a “national monument”? Landscapes of extraordinary cultural, scientific, and ecological value that are protected for the public. have not been spared.
Earthjustice has sued the Trump administration more than a hundred times to curtail its worst excesses, including its attacks on national monuments protected under the law.
Learn about the places we're fighting for.

Bears Ears National Monument

How is Bears Ears special?
Bears Ears National Monument was designated in response to a concerted effort by the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute and Zuni tribal governments to seek lasting protection for unique historic and contemporary cultural values and sites.
More than 100,000 Native American archaeological and cultural sites, some dating to 12,000 B.C., are protected in Bears Ears. Tribes continue to visit these lands to hold ceremonies and to connect with their ancestors. (See photos and videos.)


Why are protections important?
Looting of archaeological sites, uranium mining, off-road vehicle use, and other activities have long threatened the area, and would be curtailed under national monument protections.
What happened?
On Dec. 4, 2017, the Trump administration illegally shrank the monument's boundaries by more than one million acres. The administration has finalized plans to open hundreds of thousands of acres of the original monument to drilling and mining. (See the areas stripped of protections.)
What is Earthjustice doing?
Following in the footsteps of the Native American Tribes who sued the president the day the proclamation was issued, Earthjustice is representing nine conservation organizations in an ongoing lawsuit, charging that administration's actions violated the 1906 Antiquities Act and the U.S. Constitution by eviscerating the monument. (See inside the legal case.)
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Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument



How is Cascade-Siskiyou special?
The first monument designated specifically for its vibrant biodiversity, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument protects public forests, meadows, mountains and streams spanning Oregon and Northern California.
Why are protections important?
The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument area serves as a biological corridor for plants and animals to move between distinct eco-regions, providing a gateway for the Pacific fisher, mule deer, gray wolves and spotted owls, among other species, and also a designated winter range for black-tailed deer and Roosevelt elk. Seventy scientists and the governments of the two towns closest to the monument joined a call in 2011 from 15 independent scientists for an expansion of the monument.
What happened?
The timber industry and its allies, who would like to open up these forests for unsustainable logging, have brought three lawsuits.
Trump administration offices have met with county and timber industry representatives challenging the United States in federal district court over the expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou — without public notice to organizations and entities that support the monument, including Senator Wyden, Senator Merkley, and Governor Brown.
What is Earthjustice doing?
Attorneys in Earthjustice's Northwest Regional Office are part of a team defending Cascade-Siskiyou in court.
In 2019, a federal judge upheld the expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, rejecting an Oregon logging company's argument that monument lands should be reserved for timber production only. A federal judge in Washington D.C., however, issued a contrary decision, finding in favor of a timber industry coalition that the monument expansion violated the law.
Both rulings are on appeal to the 9th and D.C. Circuits, respectively. Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center represent Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and Oregon Wild as defendant-intervenors in these cases
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Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

How is Grand Staircase-Escalante special?
Home to dinosaur fossils found nowhere else in the world, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is often described as a “Dinosaur Shangri-la.” In the two decades since the area was protected, paleontologists have unearthed fossils from 21 previously undiscovered dinosaur species. (See photos and maps.)
Why are protections important?
Fossils are largely found in the Kaiparowits Plateau, where the coal industry has long coveted access for mining. Without its protected status, Grand Staircase-Escalante would be vulnerable to coal mining and oil and gas development.
What happened?
On Dec. 4, 2017, the Trump administration stripped protections from more than one million acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Management plans finalized by the administration in 2020 opened hundreds of thousands of acres of the original monument to drilling and mining.
What is Earthjustice doing?
Representing eight conservation organizations, Earthjustice sued the administration within hours of the announcement, challenging the order as an abuse of the president’s power. The lawsuit is ongoing. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Natural Resources Defense Council are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit and represented by in-house counsel. (See inside the legal case.)
Two decades earlier, Earthjustice, on behalf of conservation groups, successfully defended Grand Staircase-Escalante when two Utah counties sought to expand use of off-road dirt bikes and ATVs within the monument area.
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Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

How are the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts special?
The seamounts protected by the monument are biological oases of marine life and are the only ones found in U.S. Atlantic waters. Centuries-old cold-water corals form the foundation of this deep-sea ecosystem.
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a refuge for marine life and a buffer for the northwest Atlantic against the worst impacts of climate change. It is located off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., and is the nation’s first major marine national monument in the Atlantic. (See photos and videos.)
Why are protections important?
With these areas will go some of our best hope for restoring ecosystems that have been devastated by decades of overfishing and development. The deep ocean is becoming more accessible to oil and gas exploration and industrial fishing with each advance in technology. If remaining marine reserves are not permanently protected now, they risk being destroyed.
What happened?
On World Environment Day in 2020, the Trump administration issued a proclamation that exposes the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts to harmful commercial fishing and resource extraction activities, such as bottom-scouring fishing.
What is Earthjustice doing?
“We condemn this action,” said Steve Mashuda, managing attorney of Earthjustice's Oceans Program, in response to the president's actions. “And we are looking at every tool we have to support the fight against this.”
This isn’t the first time that industrial interests have threatened Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. Earthjustice — on behalf of our clients Zack Klyver, head naturalist at Bar Harbor Whale Watch Company in Maine, and the Center for Biological Diversity — and other groups intervened in an earlier lawsuit, opposing a fishing industry challenge to the designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts. On Oct. 5, 2018, the D.C. District Court upheld President Obama’s designation of the monument.
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Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

How is Papahānaumokuākea special?
Home to extensive coral reefs supporting 7,000 marine species, the undersea Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is important habitat for the threatened green sea turtle, endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and 22 species of seabirds. The protected area is where Native Hawaiians believe all life began and where spirits return after death.
Planning for the monument's expansion, which was supported by the state's governor, included more than 135 community meetings across all of Hawaiʻi’s islands. As a result of this dialogue, the final size of the expanded monument was changed to ensure access to fishing grounds used by small-boat fishermen. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a co-trustee of the monument, which gives Native Hawaiians a say in the monument’s management.

Why are protections needed?
Despite the abundance of fish outside the monument area, the commercial fishing industry seems determined to maximize private profits at the expense of the public good. Commercial longline fishermen oppose the monument, claiming that it restricts their fishing area. But Hawaiʻi’s longliners have no trouble reaching their annual bigeye tuna fishing quota; in one recent year, it took just seven months to reach the quota.
What is Earthjustice doing?
If attempts are made to lift the restriction on commercial fishing in the monument area, roll back the monument expansion, or even reverse the entire monument designation, "Earthjustice intends to oppose any such efforts in court," said Paul Achitoff, managing attorney at Earthjustice's Honolulu-based Mid-Pacific Regional Office.
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