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Natural wonders that belong to all Americans should not be carved up or given away

The first humans to set foot in North America walked across the Bering Strait the last time glaciers were full. The glaciers held so much water that the sea level dropped 400 to 425 feet compared to today's levels, turning the Bering Strait to the Bering Land Bridge.Ìý

The bridge might have risen from the sea as early as 20,000 years ago, and it might have submerged as late as 11,000 years ago. Stone, bone and wooden implements can be dated to estimate when sites were occupied, such as the Lindenmeier site (14,000 years ago) in Larimer County or the Mahaffy Cache near Gregory Canyon in Boulder (13,000 years ago).

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Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØBoulder Professor Emeritus Jeff Mitton in a giant alcove in Utah's Neon Canyon known as the Golden Cathedral. It has a large opening in its ceiling that becomes a waterfall after a rain. (Photo: Jeff Mitton)

The first white man to set foot in North America was Leif Erikson, a Norseman who established a colony in Newfoundland around 1,000 CE. It was abandoned 10 years later. A Spanish colony was established in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565, and an English settlement was founded in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620.

My reason for this abbreviated history is to remind people of the uncontested history of America. When the Pilgrims stepped ashore 461 years ago, the continent had already been occupied for 14,000 years by numerous (between 2 to 7 million) and diverse people organized into hundreds of Indigenous tribes. Claims that America is and has always been a white, Christian country have no basis in fact.

In the short time since the earliest European settlements, many shameful things have been done to Indigenous peoples—massacres, forced marches, confinement to reservations, children disappearing from government schools, the list is tragically long.Ìý

Two wonderful things happened recently. In September 1996, President Bill Clinton set aside 1.7 million acres in Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In December 2016, President Barack Obama set aside 1.35 million acres as the Bears Ears National Monument, also in Utah. Indigenous tribes were jubilant, for they considered these areas to be their sacred ancestral lands.Ìý

But in addition, six regional tribal entities were given advisory roles in stewardship and protectional of cultural resources for the Grand Staircase, and five regional tribal entities were given similar roles for Bears Ears. Sacred lands were protected and Indigenous tribal entities would share responsibilities for both management of the national monuments and protection of the sites and remaining artifacts, pictographs and petroglyphs.Ìý

In December 2017, President Donald Trump cut the sizes of the monuments by 85%. In October 2021, President Joe Biden re-established the monuments to their original sizes. In July 2026, President Trump hacked the national monuments a second time, by 90%.Ìý

President Trump justified his cuts to the national monuments as providing greater opportunities for energy extraction, or more precisely, mining and drilling. He also noted that this would increase the area open to cavorting about and ripping up the landscape with four-wheel drive and all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes.

President Trump rewards the incredibly rich CEOs of mining and drilling companies while neglecting the interests of Indigenous Americans and the people who treasure wildlife and spectacular landscapes. People seeking to minimize President Trump's slashes of the monuments might point out that no one has been forbidden to go to the places, they are just being declared "multi-use."Ìý

That sounds good, but it is vacuous.ÌýHave you ever tried to share your intended camping sites or hiking trails with a mine or a cluster of drilling rigs? Can you imagine camping beside razor wire, roaring pumps and brilliant lights? Once again, broken promises from Washington dash the hopes of Indigenous tribes.Ìý

But it is not just the Indigenous who are crushed. While the elected politicians in Utah favored Trump's gift to the rich, 70% of the people in Utah wanted the monuments to remain as they were established. Americans are proud of their national parks, and they believe that they were set aside for future generations, in perpetuity. They believe the same for national monuments—I know I did.

National parks and monuments are superb places to see plants, animals and stunning landscapes as they were naturally. They belong to all the people, and one billionaire should not have the right to gift them so that they can be used for profit.

A pot abandoned in Bears Ears National Monument around 1280 CE, when people migrated southward to escape a severe and prolonged drought. (Photo: Jeff Mitton)

Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument have scenery that rivals scenery of most national parks. I have camped in Bears Ears seven times and Grand Staircase eight times, and each adventure is a treasured memory. I took a six-hour hike and climb in Bears Ears to see a pot that was abandoned in 1280 CE, when the area was abandoned due to a lingering drought. It is believed that the pot has not been moved since that time.Ìý

In the Grand Staircase, I took a hike (twice!) on slick rock into the Escalante Canyon and up into Neon Canyon to see a giant alcove known as the Golden Cathedral. It has a large opening in its ceiling that becomes a waterfall after a rain. During a dry spell, climbers lower themselves by rope through the opening.

I have no faith, so do not consider these monuments sacred, but I have the conviction that these monuments, as they were initially drawn, are so grand and unique that they must be preserved in perpetuity. ÌýIt would be a national shame, a travesty, just as it would be to let Glacier, or Rocky Mountain, or Yosemite national parks to be carved up into mining claims.

The way out of this tragedy is not apparent to me. But I feel strongly that one man should not have the right to give away what should belong to all, forever. I believe that a national vote on the future of these treasures would set them aside in perpetuity.Ìý

Jeff Mitton is a professor emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ. His column, "Natural Selections," is also printed in the Boulder Daily Camera.

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