
- Patagonia joined a coalition of Indigenous and environmental groups suing the Trump administration over its decision to shrink Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by roughly 90 percent.
- The legal challenge argues that Donald Trump lacks the statutory authority under the Antiquities Act to downsize national monuments.
- The policy shift opens millions of acres of protected public lands to oil drilling and uranium mining, with at least nine mining claims already filed.
- Bears Ears was the first national monument created at the request of Native American nations and co-managed by tribes, who consider the lands sacred.
- Utah Governor Spencer Cox and the White House defended the downsizing, arguing that the original monument designations were excessively large and restricted vital energy resources.
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