Heinrich, Luján, Durbin Lead Colleagues in Opposing Trump’s Move to Strip Protections From Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led 34 Senators in a letter to President Trump expressing strong opposition to his executive order reducing the boundaries and stripping protections from the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments in southern Utah. In the letter, the senators highlight how the executive order places irreplaceable cultural, historic, scientific, ecological, and recreational resources at risk of destruction and loss.

"By attempting, yet again, to eliminate vast portions of these monuments, your Administration invites needless uncertainty to the stability that local communities, Tribes, land managers, scientists, recreation users, and businesses need. Not just in Utah, but for all local communities that rely on the stability of our national monuments," the Senators wrote.

"The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are national treasures. The American people deserve public lands policy grounded in law, science, respect for Tribal sovereignty, and stewardship-not political decisions against the desires of the vast majority of Americans," the Senators concluded.

In addition to Heinrich, Luján, and Durbin, the letter was signed by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Brian Schatz (D- Hawai'i), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).

Heinrich is a leader in public lands protections and a staunch supporter of protecting and expanding Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Monuments.

In July 2026, Heinrich spoke out against the Trump administration's renewed efforts to strip protections from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, describing it as a "War on the West" and criticizing the removal of protections for the monuments.

In 2021, Heinrich led Senate Democrats in urging Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland and the Biden administration to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, reversing the Trump administration's reductions. This move was ultimately successful, and President Biden restored both monuments.

In 2019, Heinrich spoke out against the Trump administration's final Bears Ears management plan, arguing DOI should not weaken protections while the legality of Trump's reductions remained in courts.

In 2018, Heinrich continued pushing back against the Trump administration's monument reductions, joining multiple letters urging the Interior to pause new management plans, preserve existing protections, and consult Tribal nations before imposing sweeping changes.

Heinrich co-sponsored the ANTIQUITIES Act in 2018 to reaffirm that only Congress has the authority to reduce or revoke a national monument designation.

Following President Trump's 2017 decision to shrink the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Heinrich condemned the action for its attack on sacred lands and Tribal sovereignty, along with the precedent it sets for public lands across the country.

In 2016, Heinrich praised President Obama's designation of Bears National Monument, recognizing the years-long effort and co-management framework of Tribal nations to protect the landscape.

Read the full text of the letter here and below.

Dear Mr. President:

We write to express our strong opposition to your July 13, 2026, proclamations that stripped protections for Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. These actions attempt to remove nearly three million acres from monument protection and placed irreplaceable cultural, historic, scientific, ecological, and recreational resources at risk of destruction and loss.

National monuments have preserved our country's unique public lands, extraordinary history, and common culture for 120 years. Grand Staircase-Escalante, established in 1996, contains world-class paleontological resources, the ancestral and current homelands of multiple Tribal Nations, striking geologic formations, unique plants and animals, stunning dark night skies, and landscapes that support robust local outdoor recreation economies. Bears Ears, established in 2016, is America's first truly tribally-driven national monument. The proposal was led by five sovereign Tribal Nations.

Each monument is a living cultural landscape with deep spiritual and ancestral importance to multiple Tribal Nations, including the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe and the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians. These places are not abstractions on a map; they are homelands and sacred sites that deserve enduring protection, and enhanced recognition secured by the previous monument declaration.

We are especially troubled that the Bears Ears proclamation disbanded the Bears Ears Commission, a landmark model of collaborative management between sovereign Tribal Nations and the federal government. Tribal leaders have made clear that Bears Ears is a sacred ancestral homeland, and that decisions affecting it must be made through meaningful government-to government consultation. The Department of the Interior had previously committed to meeting with the Bears Ears Commission if changes to the monument were under consideration; no such meeting occurred before these proclamations were signed. Any major policy action regarding these culturally important places requires meaningful government-to-government consultation.

National monuments enjoy widespread public support and serve as economic drivers across the United States. The outdoor recreation economy generates $1.3 trillion in gross output and accounts for $9.75 billion in Utah alone. The localities surrounding national monuments have seen growth in income and employment since their designations. We reject the premise that monuments are incompatible with rural prosperity or responsible public access. Despite your false claims that people cannot walk, hunt or fish in these monuments, monument designations support outdoor recreation, heritage tourism, hunting and fishing, scientific research, grazing under appropriate management, and durable local economies. At the same time, monument status prevents the loss of cultural and natural resources that cannot be replaced once damaged. By attempting, yet again, to eliminate vast portions of these monuments, your Administration invites needless uncertainty to the stability that local communities, Tribes, land managers, scientists, recreation users, and businesses need. Not just in Utah, but for all local communities that rely on the stability of our national monuments.

The Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are national treasures. The American people deserve public lands policy grounded in law, science, respect for Tribal sovereignty, and stewardship-not political decisions against the desires of the vast majority of Americans. We stand with Tribal Nations, local communities, scientists, conservationists, outdoor recreation businesses, and Americans across the country who believe these landscapes should remain protected.

###