Patagonia and Allies Reopen Lawsuit Over Bears Ears Reduction

The legal challenge targets a series of sweeping reductions across public lands in Utah that first began during Donald Trump’s initial term and escalated with new proclamations in July. According to Climbing, the revived coalition includes the Access Fund, outdoor retailer Patagonia, and several conservation organizations that originally sued the federal government in 2017.

Indian Creek Climbing Routes and Extractive Pressures at Bears Ears

The July 13 federal proclamation reduced Bears Ears. Most notably for outdoor recreationists, the latest boundary changes stripped more than 80 percent of the iconic Indian Creek climbing area of national monument status.

This shift exposes an estimated 1,200 climbing routes to potential noise, air, and visual pollution from nearby extraction interests, or the risk of losing access entirely. A newly released interactive mapping tool from the Access Fund cross-references these recreational zones against sites of interest for extractive industries across Utah, ranging from oil and gas to uranium. Unlike previous federal designations under the Obama and Biden administrations, the current proclamation doesn’t recognize climbing as a protected activity across the remnants of Bears Ears.

“The illegal reduction of Bears Ears National Monument threatens a landscape of extraordinary ecological, cultural, historical, and recreational significance.”

Heather Thorne, Access Fund executive director, via Climbing

Tribal Sovereignty and the Reopened 2017 Federal Lawsuit

When President Joe Biden restored the monuments in 2021, the original litigants suspended their legal actions. Now, with the administration pushing through deeper cuts, the plaintiffs are returning to federal court. Simultaneously, Native American tribes that originally pushed for the monument’s creation are mounting separate legal defenses.

White House Rationale and the Stance of Utah Officials

The White House and local Utah proponents have defended the rollbacks as a necessary correction against federal overreach. Proponents argue that large monument designations under the 1906 Antiquities Act restrict access to the land and block traditional uses of the land like cattle grazing and mining. Utah Republican lawmaker state Representative Mike Noel welcomed the showdown, noting that the fight will answer longstanding questions about presidential power involving the protection of land. On a visit to Utah on Monday, President Trump announced his proclamations dramatically shrinking the size of the state’s two massive national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. Taken together, Trump’s orders mark the largest reversal of national monument protections in U.S. history. No one values the splendor of Utah more than you do, Trump told an enthusiastic crowd Monday, and no one knows better how to use it. He noted that before making the decision, he had discussed it with Zinke and the state’s two GOP senators, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. Both senators have been outspoken critics of the two national monuments — both protected under the 1906 Antiquities Act by Democratic presidents — framing them as significant federal overreach that deprives Utahans of their own land. Proclamations signed Monday by the president allow lands no longer protected as a national monument to be opened up in 60 days to mining, but conservation and tribal groups will likely try to keep that from happening. Legal scholars remain divided on whether a president possesses the authority to reduce a monument created by a predecessor. Mark Squillace, professor of natural resources law at the University of Colorado-Boulder, said he doubts the federal government would permit mining so quickly after Trump’s announcement because it would be bad politics, especially as the legal battle mushrooms. Outdoor retailing giant Patagonia on Wednesday joined a flurry of lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to chop up two large national monuments in Utah could finally bring an answer to the much-debated question of whether presidents have the legal authority to undo or change monuments created by past presidents. Until that question is answered months or years from now, the fate of the contested lands in Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments will remain unresolved. California-based Patagonia filed its lawsuit on behalf of several other organizations to block Trump’s reductions to Bears Ears, and the California-based company said in the lawsuit that Trump’s proclamation shrinking the monument by 85 percent exceeds the president’s authority and strips much-needed protections from sacred tribal lands. Patagonia also replaced its usual home page with a stark message, The President Stole Your Land.