1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

I am writing as a constituent and Utah resident to express my profound disappointment in the executive orders signed this week slashing Bears Ears National Monument by roughly 91% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by nearly 90% — the most drastic reduction of protected public land in our nation’s history. These are not empty acres. Bears Ears holds more than 100,000 archaeological sites and is a living cultural landscape for the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute, and Ute Mountain Ute peoples. Grand Staircase-Escalante protects ancient dwellings, fossil beds, and some of the last dark skies and unbroken wilderness in the Southwest. These lands were set aside not on a whim, but because they meet the highest bar for protection under the Antiquities Act — and they belong to all of us, not to mining and drilling interests. I am especially troubled that this decision was made without meaningful tribal consultation, reversing a landmark co-stewardship agreement that took years to build. Polling consistently shows the overwhelming majority of Utahns — nearly three-quarters — want these monuments kept intact. This action does not reflect the will of the people it claims to serve. I am asking you to: • Publicly oppose this rollback and support litigation challenging its legality • Cosponsor or support legislation to permanently protect Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante at their full boundaries • Insist on genuine, binding tribal consultation in any future decisions affecting these lands Our public lands are not a bargaining chip for short-term extraction. I urge you to stand on the side of conservation, tribal sovereignty, and the generations who will inherit these places after us.