Notes from America’s Monuments and Why You Need to Be Paying Attention
40 Presidents have utilized the Antiquities Act to protect the monuments that would go on to become Grand Canyon National Park, Olympic National Park, Acadia National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, and many more.
Our National Monuments often contain treasured public lands and waters. They’re so important that forty Presidents, across both parties, have utilized the Antiquities Act to protect monuments that would go on to become Grand Canyon National Park, Olympic National Park, Acadia National Park, Glacier Bay National Park, Zion National Park, Arches National Park, and many more. President Teddy Roosevelt, one of our most famous conservation presidents, established 18 national monuments shortly after he signed the Antiquities Act into law. Since that time, nearly half of America’s National Parks started first as National Monuments—a part of our nation’s natural and cultural heritage.
Across the country, the 31 national monuments designated in the last 30 years directly protect 21,143 miles of rivers across 2,125 watersheds, affecting the clean water supplies of more than 13 million people. These monuments provide world-class fishing, hunting, paddling, and other forms of outdoor recreation fueling valuable and sustainable economic development for nearby gateway communities. These public lands are also our natural water towers, providing clean water to people and wildlife downstream.
Taos, New Mexico, the gateway to the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument, saw a 40% increase in tourism and over 20% increase in lodging tax revenue in the year after its designation. The protections the Monument provide for wildlife are immeasurable, as elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, and mule deer all use the river corridor as habitat and a major migration corridor. Acequias, Pueblos, agricultural producers, and local communities are also supported by water from the Monument.
In Maine, the watersheds of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, including the East Branch Penobscot River, provided $3.4 million to the local economies of gateway communities according to a study by the National Park Service. The Monument safeguards more than 30 miles of the East Branch of the Penobscot River along with the Seboeis River and Wassataquoik Stream, protecting cold, clean headwaters that are essential to healthy rivers all the way downstream. These free-flowing waters and surrounding forests sustain endangered Atlantic salmon, wild brook trout, moose, Canada lynx, and bald eagles — proof that protecting a river means protecting the entire web of life that depends on it.
Our Local Monuments: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
Like others who live near or visit National Monuments near them or those in states across the country, my family and I take time – sometimes an extended weekend, sometimes two weeks – to do what we love most: Travel the desert rivers, buff-colored canyons, and pinion-juniper mesas of Bears Ears National Monument or Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument afoot, afloat, astride a bicycle, or in a four-wheel drive vehicle.
We have made this pilgrimage without exception every spring for over 20 years. The two monuments have very different characters, but they both have extraordinary qualities that make them special to us, pulling us back year after year. Sinuous, red rock canyons emanate from high-altitude mesas, picking up seeps and springs as they make their way to some of the most storied and intact river systems in the Southwest.
Together, these designations protect significant portions of the San Juan, Colorado, and Escalante river systems, safeguarding important cultural and ecological values, and ensuring clean water for people and wildlife downstream.
A Public Trust
Humans have been attached to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante for millennia. The Ancestral Puebloan cliff houses, kivas, granaries, and rock art protected under the Antiquities Act make that clear, as do the seeps, springs, herbs, and natural landforms. Many tribal members continue to call these places their ancestral homelands and current sources of medicinal and ceremonial plants, among other irreplaceable natural and cultural resources. Bears Ears National Monument has been described as an open-air museum and cathedral, whereas Grand Staircase-Escalante was designated for its one-of-a-kind cultural, geologic, and palaeontologic values.
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition includes the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe of Uintah and Ouray Reservation – who came together with federal agencies in 2016 to protect what became Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. This was the country’s first designation based upon these Tribes’ continual connection to this landscape for millennia and the nearly 100,000 archeological sites it contains.
The six Tribes of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, which includes the Hopi Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Zuni Tribe, engage in the management and stewardship of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a living landscape and ancestral homeland which was designated 30 years ago in 1996.
On Monday, July 13, 2026, two proclamations were issued to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by 90% – almost 3 million acres combined- leaving just over 300,000 acres protected under monument designations. The Bears Ears Commission, established to inform the management of the lands and resources of Bears Ears, and made up entirely of Tribal representatives, was also disbanded, and the Tribes’ seals were removed from signage at the monument. This is a larger rollback than was attempted in 2017, when the boundaries of the monuments were decreased by about 2 million acres, a decision was ultimately reversed by President Biden. Over 1,000 people recently turned out in six cities across Utah to support maintenance of the original designations for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Coming to A National Monument Near You?
Other monuments are also potentially in peril, including ones that have significant local and state support.
There are places in the country where development is appropriate. But as a nation, we must continue the successes that we’ve had in conserving our most irreplaceable waterways and landscapes and in respecting tribal sovereignty. If you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit some of these special places, go. See, for yourself, some of the best places we’ve protected as a country.
Tags: Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, San Juan River, Escalante River, public lands, national monuments, Antiquities Act, tribes, river protection, river conservation, clean water
Connect With Rivers
Stay up to date on public lands/rivers issues like the defense of National Monuments and Roadless Areas, National Parks, and Wild and Scenic Rivers.
