STANDfor Public Landsby More Than Just Parks
Bears Ears National Monument
Stand · Find your defenders

Who’s defending Bears Ears?

1 case live in federal court over this place, filed 2017

National monument in Utah, managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, designated in 2016.

The groups

Who’s in the fight for Bears Ears

Every group here is listed for a sourced fact, and each fact opens its source. Give directly; no gift routes through this site.

In the fight 11

A sourced tie to Bears Ears, from anywhere.

Show all 11

Your group works here? Add it. Send the page on your group’s own site that says it works on Bears Ears. A person on the desk reads it before anything lists.

The situation

What’s happening to Bears Ears

Sacred to five tribal nations for thousands of years, Bears Ears catalyzed a national movement for Indigenous-led conservation. On July 13, 2026 a presidential proclamation cut the monument by roughly 91 percent, from 1.36 million acres down to about 121,096 acres, and disbanded the five-tribe Bears Ears Commission that co-managed it. About 1.24 million acres of sacred red rock canyon country lose protection and reopen to mineral and geothermal leasing and mining, for the silver, copper, uranium, vanadium, and other minerals the proclamation names. The tribes say they were never consulted. The 2017 challenge to the earlier cut, Wilderness Society v. Trump, stayed since 2021, is being reopened: motions to lift the stay were filed in September 2026, and Utah and the federal defendants answered on September 16.

  1. 2016Designated as national monument by President Obama
  2. 2017Reduced by 85% under executive order
  3. 2021Boundaries restored by President Biden
  4. 2025Monument protections under renewed review
  5. 2026Proclamation 11043 cuts monument to ~121,096 acres, disbands tribal commissionFederal Register (91 FR 45169) · July 13, 2026
  6. 2026Excluded lands reopen to mineral leasing and mining (60 days after signing)White House fact sheet · July 13, 2026
  7. 2026Motions to reopen the 2017 challenge and lift its stay draw responses from Utah and the federal defendants (D.D.C. 1:17-cv-02587)

No public comment window is open on Bears Ears right now. A call script is ready on the Public Lands Action Network, and the groups above are how the fight gets funded and argued in the meantime.

In the courts

The cases over this place

The dockets we track that name Bears Ears directly. Active first.

ActiveWilderness Society v. Donald J. TrumpU.S. District Court, D.C. · filed 2017 · Docket ↗
DismissedHopi Tribe v. Trump (Bears Ears National Monument)U.S. District Court, D.C. · filed 2017 · Docket ↗
ClosedSo. Utah Wilderness v. BLMTenth Circuit · filed 2004 · Docket ↗

Our reporting

What we’ve published on Bears Ears

More Than Just ParksNational Monuments Can Now Be Erased, Justice Department RulesMore Than Just ParksThe Law That Saved the American Soul Is Now Under Attack

Your move

How to stand for Bears Ears

GiveGive to Bears Ears Partnership

Straight to their own donation page. Your dollar never passes through us.

Their donation page ↗SpeakCall your representatives

A ready call script on Bears Ears, plus any comment window as it opens.

Public Lands Action NetworkFollowFollow the monument

Bears Ears tracked as it moves through the courts and the agencies. Alerts when it matters.

Monument Watch

Build my lineup around Bears Ears: a group in the fight here opens it, and the other seats are the matchmaker’s picks.

Bears Ears has defenders. It needs more.

5 local groups, 11 more in the fight, Bears Ears Partnership with 17 staff + 101 volunteers, 1 live case in federal court. That is who is holding it. Find your way in.

Give to Bears Ears Partnership ↗Every place, state and species
Sources and methodThe situation, timeline, and threats: the MTJP threatened-lands record for Bears Ears, with per-item sources. Court cases: CourtListener dockets in the MTJP litigation database (3 naming this place). Group crews and program ratios: IRS Form 990 via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, latest filed year, EINs on each group’s profile. Which groups are listed for this place: a group is listed only under a sourced fact, and each chip opens its source. Local means headquartered in the state (the group’s own site, else the legal domicile on its 990) or the place named in its mission on its latest 990. In the fight means a case over the place naming it (the court docket), its own comment on a decision about the place (regulations.gov), an editors’ link with its source or its own page approved by a person here, or events on its own calendar held at the place. No fact, no listing. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-09-28. No group pays to be listed on this page or for where it sits.