You stood up in defense of Bears Ears National Monument. Now we need you to do the same for Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Over the last few weeks, you helped deluge the Department of Interior with more than 685,000 comments in support of Bears Ears. Thank you to everyone who took action! This extraordinary show of support would not be possible without your individual action.
The outrageously short 15 day comment period for Bears Ears has now closed.
But the Department of Interior is still accepting comments on the future of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, as well as 25 additional national monuments around the country.
Please write today to help save Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument!
Even if you mentioned Grand Staircase-Escalante when you wrote earlier on Bears Ears, please write again. This will help ensure your comment on Grand Staircase-Escalante is counted.
You can access the Department of Interior’s official comment form here.
Your comments are desperately needed! The Trump administration appears serious about eviscerating Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument. The Utah delegation is pressing the president to carve out a huge chunk of the 1.7 million acre monument for potential coal mining. And Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke seems to be listening! His visit to the monument in May focused on a driving tour to a coal seam!
It is important that your comments be in your own words. The Department of Interior will count them individually that way. What is most useful is your own statement about why Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is special to you and why ALL OF IT deserves to be protected. It’s fine if you keep it simple and from the heart.
To help you gather your thoughts, here are a few points of information (you can also click here to view our story map):
• Grand Staircase-Escalante was designated in 1996. Since then, it has come to be known as the “Science Monument”—yielding several new species of dinosaur and other paleontological finds and providing habitat for 650 bee species, many that are endemic to the area.
• Grand Staircase-Escalante has incredible camping, hiking and other recreational opportunities. Places like Calf Creek, Peekaboo and Spooky Canyon, Coyote Gulch, and the Hole in the Rock Road are known the world over. If you have your own favorites, be sure to mention them!
• Polling shows more than half of Utahns want Grand Staircase-Escalante left alone. That’s added to the more than 80 percent of Westerners that the Colorado College Conservation in the West poll showed want existing national monuments left intact.
• Reviewing any monument is a political act, but especially when it involves one that is more than two decades old and flourishing. No president has ever taken this needless step, and neither should President Trump.
The comment period for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument closes on July 10. But please take a moment and write now. We want to show strong support prior to the anniversary of the Antiquities Act on June 8!
To make sure your comment is properly tallied, please send us a copy. You can do that easily by:
- Clicking on “I want to provide my contact information” on the DOI comment form;
- Clicking on “Email Receipt” at step 3;
- Forwarding the email you receive from regulations.gov to issues-action@suwa.org
Thanks for taking action.
