Donald Trump is adamantly defending Confederate monuments, all while proceeding to jeopardize our public lands and water.

Growing up in the American West, I have fond memories of camping and exploring our national parks and monuments on family vacations. Many times we found ourselves in the middle of the desert away from all signs of civilization — places like Grand Staircase-Escalante. It’s a landscape you won’t find anywhere else in the world, and one I plan to protect for future generations to come.

If Interior Secretary Zinke and Trump get their way, Grand Staircase-Escalante and 20 other national monuments could be diminished for dangerous oil and gas drilling. We can’t allow it.

The people we memorialize and the sites we protect reveal what values we hold most dear as Americans. 

Donald Trump has shown us his values. At the same time Trump justifies public statues of Confederate generals that serve as a painful reminder of white supremacy and hate, he is effectively auctioning off pristine natural areas to corporate polluters. His values are not our values.

These public lands belong to us all as shared spaces for recreation and conservation, but Zinke and Trump are chipping away at public lands that drive local economies and draw visitors to our states. Cherished areas like the Giant Sequoia National Monument in California could shrink to just a third of its current size.

In Utah, Zinke’s proposal to reduce the Bears Ears National Monument by nearly 90 percent is not just an attack on our environment, it’s an infringement on indigenous rights. That region is sacred to various tribes, and the Trump administration’s unprecedented reversal is an assault on Native American sovereignty.

Act now: Tell Secretary Zinke to protect every acre of our national monuments. 

Thanks for speaking up,

Aaron Burgess
Advocacy Manager
NextGen America