ICYMI: Utah Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Call on Leaders to Reject Attacks on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

SALT LAKE CITY - Yesterday, Utah Sierra Club and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) held a press conference with community members speaking out against Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Celeste Maloy's (R-UT-02) attempt to overturn the Monument Management Plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

* Watch the Press Call Here *

Below are excerpts pulled from the press conference:

"National monuments are incredibly important and 86% of Utahns support their protections. These protected lands are places we come to learn and explore. Access to these spaces is incredibly important to our residents and local economies," said Franque Bains, Chapter Director of the Utah Sierra Club. "Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy made a targeted attack on the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument Resource Management Plan by overstepping years of collaborative work that led to the monument's plan's adoption in 2025… We stand behind the efforts to protect this national monument and urge our senators and representatives to cease attempts to erase this management plan and the public's voice in the future of our public lands."

"These management plans are a collaborative process with a lot of give and take. The final plan, which was completed in 2025, reflects that - it reflects the back and forth and exchange … It's a plan that prioritizes the conservation of the monument object and values, while at the same time striking a balance and allowing the public to travel throughout and enjoy the monument," said Steve Bloch, Legal Director, SUWA. "Representative Maloy and Senator Lee …talk about returning to the 2020 Trump-era plan that would only manage half of the monument as a national monument. The lands that Trump had excluded would be prioritized for fossil fuel development, for increased extractive industry, and intensive use. The battle has moved to the floor of Congress, and we expect the vote to be very close. We're playing to win that fight."

"I consider Grand Staircase-Escalante as part of my extended backyard… this place means a lot to me. For those of us who live in the region, this landscape is a part of our lives. It's where we hike, explore, and bring our families to experience something bigger than ourselves," said Debbie Young, Concerned Southern Utah Resident. "Grand Staircase-Escalante belongs to every American. Long before any of us were here, Indigenous peoples lived, traveled, and thrived in this landscape. Rescinding the current management plan would be a blow to the monument… it deserves thoughtful stewardship to keep it intact for future generations."

"The uncertainty is what hurts our business, and it makes it hard for us to plan for future investment in our communities. We rely on our management plan as a good floor plan for how we send people out there and how our guests and visitors actually experience Grand-Staircase, said Nathan "Nate" Waggoner, owner, Escalante Outfitters, and board chair, Grand Staircase Regional Guides Association. " Every time that someone goes after the management plan, attacks it, or tries to degrade it, we lose assurance…You don't take something like the Congressional Review Act and just sledgehammer a plan that had thousands of hours of input and time and energy put into it."

"For tribal nations, this landscape isn't just federal land: it's ancestral land, sacred geography. It is a part of who we are… If there is opposition with the current monument management plan, the appropriate solution is amendment, it is not elimination," said Autumn Gillard, Coordinator, Grand Staircase Escalante Intertribal Coalition. "Using the CRA is a blunt instrument. It removes the plan entirely, and cuts Tribes, local communities, and the public out of the process… Before these lands were public lands, they were Indigenous lands… we deserve the right and ability to have the comment process and the correct conversations through proper tribal consultation."

"This is a landscape that is revered by so many communities because of its pristine condition. We would like to see that condition and that beautification remain throughout time and eternity," Autumn continued.

BACKGROUND:

Grand Staircase-Escalante was established as a national monument in 1996 to protect unparalleled geological and ecological resources in southern Utah. Since its designation, the monument has attracted millions of visitors and contributed more than 3,000 new jobs to a growing local economy . The monument is also culturally significant to many of the Tribes in the region, and last year, six Tribes formed the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition to advocate for Tribal voices and perspectives to be heard and included in the management of the monument. But the ecological, economic, and cultural benefits of the monument are now under attack by Senator Mike Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy , who are attempting to override years of public input and Tribal consultation to undo protections for the public lands we all rely on.

In a new op-ed for Deseret News , Utah Sierra Club Chapter Director Franque Bains spoke about the importance of protecting Grand Staircase-Escalante's land use plan: "In its 29 years, this monument has been the reason that the local economy has grown, more so than in surrounding counties without national monuments… The best way to honor and protect the remarkable landscape we all love and also help local business is to keep intact this monument's plan."

On March 4, the elected officials behind 2025's failed public lands sell-off attempts - Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-UT-02) - introduced a joint resolution to undo the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If both chambers of Congress pass the measure by simple majority votes, the plan - which sets expectations for how these remarkable public lands will be managed for recreation, camping and outdoor access, collaboration with Tribal Nations, dark night skies, grazing, and other uses - will be undone and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be barred from issuing another plan that is "substantially the same" in the future. This assault on a national monument marks a significant escalation in Congress' use of the CRA and - if successful - would lead to chaos on the ground.