FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
September 17, 2026

Senator Lee formally begins process to fast-track the destruction of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah – 9.17.26 

Within a day, industry clamoring to exploit landscape

Contacts:
Grant Stevens, Communications Director, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (319) 427-0260; grant@suwa.org
Keri Gilliland, The Wilderness Society, (KGilliland@tws.org)
Chaitna Sinha, Conservation Codirector and Staff Attorney, Grand Canyon Trust; (970) 399-9565 (csinha@grandcanyontrust.org)
Amy Dominguez, Sierra Club, amy.dominguez@sierraclub.org, (385) 355-4631
Kris Deutschman, Conservation Lands Foundation, kris@conservationlands.org, (505) 498-0212
Andrew Scibetta, NRDC, (202) 289-2421, ascibetta@nrdc.org
Daniel Hernandez, National Parks Conservation Association, dhernandez@npca.org, (202) 573-2201

Washington, DC – Anti-public-lands crusader Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) has taken a significant step towards fast-tracking the destruction of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, and all the things that make it a national treasure. This week, Lee added the recently issued Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinion regarding the Monument’s Management Plan to the Congressional Record. Under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), following the entry of the opinion into the Congressional Record, a “resolution of disapproval” may be introduced (anticipated to occur soon), and then both chambers of Congress can expedite their votes and pass the measures by simple majority votes. If that happens and the resolution is signed into law by the President, the Bears Ears Monument Management Plan – which sets expectations for how the land will be managed for wildlife, outdoor access, dark night skies, grazing, and other uses – will be undone. This could undo the management plan developed through years of Tribal-federal collaboration and speed up the destruction of the landscape, while also blocking a “substantially the same” plan from being enacted in the future.

Sen. Lee’s move comes just days after 16 mining claims were filed in Bears Ears National Monument. The mining bans in both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante only lifted on Friday, September 11, and mining companies are already staking claims in the landscape. Since Trump’s proclamations in July, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, The Navajo Nation Council, the Navajo-Utah Commission, Native American Right Fund – NARF, The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO), Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Hopi Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 37 U.S. Senators, 330 organizations, faith communities, veteran groups, businesses, and conservation organizations have opposed oppose the evisceration of protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. Additional information appears below, along with quotes from conservation groups. 

“Senator Lee’s vision for Bears Ears National Monument is a landscape dominated by exploitation – mining, grazing, logging – if not outright sold to the highest bidder. We’re going to do everything we can to stop that from happening,” said Steve Bloch, Legal Director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “Bears Ears is a national treasure, and the monument management plan put the guardrails in place to make sure its remarkable cultural resources, unique plants and animals, and stunning, silent redrock canyons are there for current and future generations to enjoy. All of that is at risk if Lee’s attack succeeds and the monument management plan is undone.”                                                                                     

“Senator Lee is at it again,” said Thomas Delehanty, senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain Office. “After failing to eliminate the Grand Staircase-Escalante management plan earlier this year, Lee is now going after the Bears Ears plan instead. This plan, developed through years of public input and collaboration with Tribes, provides essential guidelines on activities that can occur in the monument. Its loss, coupled with Trump’s recent attack on the monument’s boundaries, would be a major blow to these irreplaceable public lands.”

“Bears Ears was already unlawfully reduced by 90%, but that is not enough for Senator Lee. Now he wants to eliminate the Bears Ears management plan, developed through years of public input and close collaboration with the Bears Ears Commission,” said Chaitna Sinha, Staff Attorney and Conservation Codirector at the Grand Canyon Trust. “This is despite the fact that, just last month, polling showed that a majority (66%) of Utahns said protections should be restored to all of Bears Ears and 82% say Native American tribes should have a strong role in managing their ancestral lands, including 76% of Republicans. Senator Lee needs to start listening to his constituents and stop his relentless attacks on our public lands. Utahns want Bears Ears protected.”

“This is a shameful attempt to erase decades of partnership between the U.S. government and the Tribes, the original stewards of this land,” said Charlie Luke, Utah state director at The Wilderness Society. “Instead, Senator Lee wants to open our public lands to the highest bidders, putting cultural resources, clean water and wildlife at risk while threatening our freedom to experience Bears Ears and hand it down intact to future generations.” 

“Bears Ears is a living cultural landscape and an irreplaceable part of Utah’s public lands. Its management plan reflects years of public input and historic collaboration with the Tribal Nations that have stewarded this landscape since time immemorial,” said Franque Bains, Director of the Sierra Club’s Utah Chapter. “Senator Lee’s effort would throw that work aside and put Bears Ears at even greater risk. Utahns have made clear that they want our public lands protected and Tribal Nations to have a strong voice in caring for their ancestral lands. Congress should listen to them and leave this plan in place.”

“This is yet another attack on Bears Ears,” said Bobby McEnaney, Senior Land Analyst at NRDC. “The Trump administration is already attempting to decimate the monument. Now Utah’s congressional delegation wants to erase the collaborative management plan that remains. The theme is clear: disregard for the Tribes, the science, and the public consensus that built Bears Ears’ protections. Congress should reject this effort outright.”

“Senator Lee’s irrational quest to annihilate Bears Ears and every other acre of public land goes against the values and priorities of the majority of Utahns and the rest of the country,” said Chris Hill, CEO of the Conservation Lands Foundation. “A real leader listens to what the people want and stands up to corporate interests. That’s clearly not the case with Senator Lee and we trust the rest of Congress will oppose this madness and waste of attention and get to the business of protecting the public’s access to the national monuments, national parks, and other landscapes that Americans want.”

“After the president shrank Bears Ears National Monument by 91 percent, Sen. Mike Lee and other Utah leaders are now attempting to overturn the management plan of the 9 percent of what is left,” said Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert. “This is a deliberate undermining of Tribal sovereignty in one of the most culturally significant places in the country, and the recently filed mining claims give us a glimpse of what the future of the monument might be. Patagonia stands with the Tribal Nations, conservationists, activists and local communities speaking up to protect Bears Ears.” 

“No one in D.C. is more obsessed with tearing apart our public lands than Mike Lee,” said Melissa Cain at the Center for Biological Diversity. “His latest attack on Bears Ears is a pathetic insult to the five Tribal Nations and everyone else who worked tirelessly to secure protections for this national monument. These lands are a cherished part of our national and cultural heritage and they belong to every American. We’ll do everything in our power to ensure his cynical effort fails as spectacularly as his previous attempts have.”

Additional information about Senator Lee’s Attack: 

In April 2026, Senator Lee requested an opinion from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about whether Congress can overturn the current Bears Ears Monument Management Plan; on August 17, the GAO released its opinion that Congress can undo the plan. Earlier this year, using the same mechanism, Utah’s federal delegation, led by Senator Lee and Representative Celeste Maloy (R-UT-02), attempted to undo the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan. Tribal Nations, hunters and anglers, recreationists, local businesses, scientists, faith leaders, and members of the public from across Utah and the country spoke out loudly against this unfounded attack on one of the nation’s public lands gems. Lee and Maloy’s fast-track attack failed on June 12, 2026.

Just a month later, on July 13, 2026, President Trump illegally decimated both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by reducing each of them by over 90%. Significantly, until new management plans are finalized, the existing plans for each National Monument remain in place. That means the current plans will still manage activities in the monuments, with at least one major exception: mining. Trump’s proclamations directed that on September 11, 2026, the lands he cut out of both monuments be opened to new mining claims. Conservation groups challenged Trump’s illegal reductions of both Monuments on Tuesday, Sept. 9 in Federal Court.

Additional information about Bears Ears National Monument 

Beloved by Utahns and Americans, Bears Ears National Monument is a region of extraordinary cultural significance and natural diversity. On December 28, 2016, President Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish Bears Ears National Monument, protecting both a cultural landscape that has been home to Tribal Nations from time immemorial and some of the wildest redrock country in the nation. The proclamation elevated the voices of Tribal Nations that have ancestral ties to the region. Nearly 100,000 archaeological and cultural sites were protected by the proclamation, including House on Fire and Moon House.

The Bears Ears proposal was led by the five Tribal Nations that would later comprise the “Bears Ears Commission:” the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe. On December 4, 2017, President Trump ignored millions of public comments and in a brazenly illegal act repealed Bears Ears National Monument, replacing it with two much smaller, non-contiguous units totaling around 200,000 acres (an 85% reduction). His unprecedented action left rare archaeological sites, unique flora and fauna, and stunning wildlands without protection from looting, uranium mining, oil and gas drilling, and off-road vehicle damage. 

Thankfully, on October 8, 2021, President Biden signed a proclamation restoring Bears Ears National Monument to its full, original boundaries—plus an additional 11,200 acres added to the Trump-era Indian Creek unit. National monuments are overwhelmingly popular. In 2022, the BLM and U.S. Forest Service, in collaboration with the Bears Ears Commission, began the process of developing a management plan to govern the Bears Ears National Monument. This was a crucial partnership to ensure that the monument is managed for its unique and extraordinary values, including the wealth of sacred objects and places of importance to the Tribal Nations of the Commission. 

The Bears Ears Commission played a central role in developing the 2025 Bears Ears Resource Management Plan, an unprecedented collaborative framework that brings Traditional Indigenous Knowledge and western science together to guide stewardship of Bears Ears National Monument. Following passage of the Resource Management Plan, the Commission worked with the agencies to implement the Resource Management Plan, up until President Trump purported to eliminate the Commission in his July 2026 proclamation.

About the Congressional Review Act (CRA)

The CRA is a federal statute enacted in March 1996 that requires federal agencies to submit “rules” to Congress for a mandatory review period “before they may take effect.” If Congress votes to overturn, or “disapprove,” the rule, it “may not be reissued in substantially the same form. . . .” The BLM has long maintained that its land management plans are not “rules” subject to the CRA. Other federal land management agencies, including the USFS,  and National Park Service, have similarly not submitted their land management plans to Congress under the CRA.

However, emboldened by a series of non-binding Government Accountability Office (GAO) opinions, Republican members of Congress have embraced the novel theory that federal land management plans are in fact “rules” subject to the CRA. The 119th Congress has passed seven CRA resolutions overturning previously finalized land management plans or other types of public lands management decisions. The GAO issued a decision regarding the Bears Ears Monument Management Plan on August 17, 2026.

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The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.