BURST
Editor’s note: In reporting this story, we interviewed representatives of Access Fund. We also drew upon research for past coverage that included reviews of federal documents, interviewing a Diné/Hopi climber, and connecting with the Outdoor Alliance on new maps that cross-reference recreation sites and extraction sites that are established or of interest across Utah’s national monuments.
This morning, on September 2, climbing advocacy organization Access Fund announced a new claim in its ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration for significantly downsizing Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument.
Access Fund originally filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2017, when Trump reduced Bears Ears by 85%, as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 47%, during his first term. When President Biden restored the national monument in 2021, Access Fund suspended its lawsuit.
Now, the nonprofit is picking back up the torch after Trump announced even greater cuts to Utah’s two national monuments. Today, Access Fund filed a motion to re-open its 2017 lawsuit in light of the recent reduction. On July 13, the Trump administration released a proclamation that reduced Bears Ears by 91%. He also reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by over 90%.
This more recent downsizing stripped over 80% of the iconic Indian Creek climbing area of national monument status. The change in public land status puts an estimated 1,200 Indian Creek climbing routes at risk of noise, air, and visual pollution—or losing access entirely—due to extraction interests. A new interactive map from Access Fund plotted these climbing areas against sites of interest for extractive industries, from oil and gas to uranium. Below, you can view a static version of this map.
That estimate of 1,200 impacted routes does not include additional climbing found in other parts of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, such as Valley of the Gods. Furthermore, the new federal proclamation doesn’t recognize climbing as a protected activity across what remains of Bears Ears, like the Obama and Biden administrations did.
“Access Fund, and the vast majority of Americans, supports Bears Ears and national monuments,” Erik Murdock, Access Fund’s deputy director of programs, policy and government affairs told Climbing. “The massive reduction of Bears Ears National Monument is illegal and we are proud to go to the mat for the Bears Ears landscape, our tribal partners, Indian Creek climbing, the Antiquities Act, and the future of America’s public lands.”
In its original lawsuit, Access Fund challenged the presidential ability to reduce a national monument. The Antiquities Act empowers presidents to establish national monuments, but not to alter their boundaries or dismantle them. In 2017, its co-plaintiffs included Patagonia Works, Utah Diné Bikéyah, Friends of Cedar Mesa, Archaeology Southwest, the Conservation Lands Foundation, the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Access Fund is filing its new claim and resuming its lawsuit with the same co-plaintiffs.
The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition also has an existing lawsuit from 2017 against the Trump administration. That Coalition includes representation from the Hopi, Navajo, Ute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni tribal governments, all of whom hold sacred ties to the Bears Ears land.
“The illegal reduction of Bears Ears National Monument threatens a landscape of extraordinary ecological, cultural, historical, and recreational significance,” Access Fund executive director Heather Thorne said. “Bears Ears protects critical habitat, sacred places and cultural resources of deep importance to Indigenous peoples, irreplaceable archaeological and paleontological sites, and some of the country’s most exceptional outdoor recreation opportunities, including world-class climbing. Sacrificing these lands for the short-term interests of extractive industries would cause far reaching and unnecessary harm to America’s public lands system.”
This is a developing story that we will update as new information becomes available.
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