1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

I urge you to immediately reject any attempt to weaken protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments and to pass legislation permanently protecting these irreplaceable public lands. These lands belong to the American people—not to any administration seeking to dismantle decades of conservation with the stroke of a pen. Bears Ears protects thousands of sacred cultural and archaeological sites significant to Tribal Nations, while Grand Staircase-Escalante contains one of the most scientifically important and biologically diverse landscapes in the United States. Once these places are damaged by mining, drilling, or other industrial development, they cannot be restored. Protecting public lands is also sound economic policy. America’s outdoor recreation economy generates approximately $1.3 trillion in annual economic output, supports more than 5 million jobs, and sustains countless rural communities that depend on hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, climbing, and tourism. Destroying protected landscapes for short-term private interests threatens long-term local economies. The public has made its position unmistakably clear. Polling has consistently found overwhelming support for protecting national monuments, including strong majorities of Western voters and Utah residents who want existing monument protections maintained. Congress—not the executive branch acting alone—must ensure these nationally significant landscapes remain protected for future generations. I urge you to pass legislation codifying the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments and to oppose any effort to reduce, rescind, privatize, or exploit America’s public lands. These places are our shared national heritage. Protect them. Defend them. Do your job before another piece of America’s natural and cultural legacy is lost forever.