Locals across the U.S. gathered over the weekend to protest Trump administration efforts to shrink national monuments, warning that the moves could open treasured public lands to mining and development.
Wyatt Myskow reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- At Ironwood Forest National Monument in Arizona, residents, elected officials, and conservationists rallied against Trump administration plans to reduce protections for six monuments, including Ironwood, to allow for industrial expansion.
- The Antiquities Act, which gives presidents authority to designate monuments, turned 119 this weekend; it has preserved over 160 sites but is now under renewed scrutiny from Republican leaders who claim it overreaches.
- Arizona officials, including those from Pima County and Tucson, issued proclamations supporting Ironwood, citing its ecological value and its cultural importance to the region’s identity.
Key quote:
“We have to win every time. The other side only needs to win once.”
— Mike Quigley, Arizona state director, The Wilderness Society
Why this matters:
National monuments protect some of the nation’s most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes. In the face of mounting pressure from mining, drilling, and real estate interests, rolling back protections opens these lands to irreversible change. When national monument boundaries shrink, so do the legal protections for species, Indigenous sacred sites, and local water quality. These changes ripple out beyond park borders, especially in places like the arid Southwest, where ecosystem resilience and community well-being are tightly bound to land stewardship and access to undeveloped space.
Related: Trump administration seeks to open more public lands to oil, gas and mining under new Interior plan
