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SUWA Action Alerts Archives
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April 6th, 2018As you know, on December 4th, 2017, the Trump administration illegally repealed Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, replacing them with two and three drastically smaller national monuments, respectively. This left over 2 million acres of cultural and natural wonders without protection.
Despite legal challenges filed by SUWA and partner organizations over this unlawful abuse of presidential authority, the BLM is moving forward with planning processes for these new monuments. This rushed effort largely cuts out public input so it’s important that you speak up as the Bureau of Land Management begins to move forward with its new management plans.
Submit your comments to the BLM by April 11th for Bears Ears and April 13th for Grand Staircase-Escalante. Please note: you must comment separately on each monument plan.
>> Click here to submit comments on Bears Ears (by April 11)
>> Click here to submit comments on Grand Staircase-Escalante (by April 13)We encourage you to write personalized comments as the agency is likely to disregard boilerplate messages. For talking points, please see the links above.
Your actions play a critical role in protecting both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments as our legal team works to restore the monuments to their original state.
Thank you for taking action.
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March 9th, 2018What happens when the government is controlled by friends of the oil/gas/mining industry and decides that public lands should be destroyed for short-term rewards? People get angry, and that anger turns to ACTION. Earlier this week, Congress heard from 30 impassioned activists in Washington, D.C. during the Utah Wilderness Coalition’s annual Wilderness Week, co-hosted by SUWA, Sierra Club, and NRDC.
Wilderness Week activists in front of the U.S. Capitol this past week.
After an extensive training session covering the ins and outs of lobbying, Utah wilderness issues, and the legislative process, activists took to Capitol Hill to put their newfound skills to good use. Teams scheduled over 200 meetings with members of Congress. In office after office, their stories of the redrock reinvigorated old legislative champs, educated new ones, and challenged the assertions of opponents.
Now we’re asking you to amplify their voices and help keep up the momentum.
A love for the redrock drove these activists to share their personal stories and connections to the landscape during their meetings on the Hill. Whether they grew up near Utah’s magnificent public lands, hiked through slot canyons on family vacations, or have a deep cultural connection to the landscape, their stories struck a chord in many offices.
For those of you reading this who were not able to attend Wilderness Week, there is still a part for you to play. No matter where you live, contact your members of Congress and tell them to cosponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act!
If they are already cosponsors, click here to thank them!
Or if you prefer to contact your members via your smartphone, text “ARRWA” to 52886 to take action now!
To find out if your members of Congress have already endorsed America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, click here for the current list of cosponsors
Thank you!
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January 30th, 2018The Bureau of Land Management in Utah is ramping up a failed policy called chaining—in which bulldozers drag anchor chains to uproot and destroy native pinyon and juniper forests and sagebrush.
Why do they do this? To create more forage for cattle on public lands.
And now, under the Trump administration, the BLM wants to chain in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
The practice of chaining is so unbelievable that most people can’t imagine how destructive it is. That’s why SUWA has launched a new statewide television campaign in Utah—to focus attention on the BLM’s destructive practice and stop the agency from wrecking Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Click below to watch SUWA’s new television ad and take action:
Chaining is a scientifically-unsound practice that wastes millions of taxpayer dollars to effectively destroy thousands of acres of Utah’s public land.
While the BLM is constantly churning out new reasons as to why chaining and other vegetation removal projects need to happen, the real drivers appear to be the same as they were in the 1960s: improving grazing forage for cattle and bringing money to the BLM field offices.
And now, the BLM is proposing chaining as one of the primary methods to remove vegetation on over 13,000 acres in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
But chaining is completely incompatible with protecting the fragile ecological, paleontological, and archaeological resources in Grand Staircase. To say that chaining in Grand Staircase is wildly inappropriate would be an understatement. This is a bad proposal based on bad science that will only produce a bad outcome.
Click here to learn more—and tell the BLM to stop chaining our public lands.Thank you for taking action.
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January 4th, 2018As you know, one month ago President Trump issued an unlawful order to repeal the Bears Ears National Monument and replace it with two smaller monuments—leaving nearly 80% of the original monument unprotected.
That same day, Representative John Curtis (UT-03) introduced H.R. 4532, the “Shash Jaa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives. This terrible bill would ratify Trump’s illegal repeal of the Bears Ears—and make his unlawful order permanent.
Please contact your members of Congress and tell them to oppose this bill!
White Canyon, one of the areas left unprotected by Trump’s repeal of Bears Ears National Monument. Copyright Jeff Clay
Rep. Curtis’s bill seeks to create a management scheme for the monument that would be dictated by parochial local interests—effectively taking all power away from the Bears Ears Commission of Tribes.
Help us stop this bill by taking action now!
This horrendous legislation is being given a hearing on Tuesday, January 9th, and may move quickly through committee and onto the House floor. If it passes both chambers and becomes law, it will be even worse for Bears Ears than Trump’s executive order last month.
Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen. Contact your representative and senators today! -
December 12th, 2017As you know, last week President Trump issued an unlawful order to repeal the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and replace it with three smaller monuments—leaving nearly half of the original monument unprotected.
The next day, Representative Chris Stewart (UT-02) introduced H.R. 4558, the “Grand Staircase-Escalante Enhancement Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives. This terrible bill would ratify Trump’s illegal repeal of the Grand Staircase-Escalante—and make his unlawful order permanent.
Sunrise on Circle Cliffs, Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Copyright James Kay
Rep. Stewart’s bill seeks to create a management scheme for the monument that would be tilted towards grazing and mineral development—development that would be dictated by parochial local interests.
And the bill includes a cynical bait-and-switch proposal to establish a so-called national park in a portion of the Escalante Canyons that would be managed not for conservation, but for grazing, hunting, and recreation. It is a national park in name only.
To save Grand Staircase, we need to stop this bill. Please contact your members of Congress now!This atrocious bill is being given a hearing this Thursday, December 14th, and may move quickly through committee and onto the House floor. If it passes both chambers and becomes law, it will be even worse for Grand Staircase-Escalante than Trump’s executive order last week.
Thank you!