{"id":17011,"date":"2026-09-03T21:59:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=17011"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:59:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:59:50","slug":"patagonia-sues-trump-admin-over-91-cut-to-bears-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=17011","title":{"rendered":"Patagonia Sues Trump Admin Over 91% Cut to Bears Ears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"justify-start\">\n<nav class=\"align-left col-span-full mb-base\" data-pom-e2e-test-id=\"breadcrumbs\"\/>\n<p>The outdoor retail giant Patagonia has rejoined tribal nations and conservation groups to fight the administration\u2019s attempt to strip protections from nearly three million acres of public land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/p>\n<p class=\"fp-leadCaption py-tight text-left font-utility text-utility3-size leading-utility3-line-height text-secondary\">Indian Creek is a world-renowned rock climbing and recreation area located in the northernmost section of the Bears Ears National Monument <!-- --> (Photo: Matteo Agnoloni\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<p>Published September 3, 2026 03:35PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Outdoor apparel\u00a0brand <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patagoniaworks.com\/press\/2026\/9\/2\/patagonia-sues-trump-administration-again-to-defend-bears-ears\">Patagonia<\/a> and seven environmental and Indigenous Rights groups have filed lawsuits against\u00a0President Trump over the slashing of Bears Ears National Monument<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit was filed on September 2 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the same federal court that handled\u00a0a 2017\u00a0 lawsuit over cuts made to Bears Ears. The groups argue that the president acted illegally when he reduced Bears Ears from 1.31 million acres to about\u00a0121,000 acres on July 13, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Other plaintiffs include the Conservation Lands Foundation, Utah Din\u00e9 Bik\u00e9yah, Archaeology Southwest, The Access Fund, A\u2019Nuche, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Patagonia Works, and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday we, alongside conservation partners, moved to lift that stay and supplement the complaint to include President Trump\u2019s most recent proclamation reducing Bears Ears by 91 percent,\u201d Rob Tadlock, Patagonia\u2019s deputy general counsel, told <em>Outside<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Patagonia\u2019s lawsuit is one in a string of many.<\/p>\n<p>Earthjustice and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) also <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2026-09\/bears-ear-national-monument_second-amended-and-supplemental-complaint_20260902.pdf\">filed<\/a> separate motions in federal court over Trump\u2019s roughly 91 percent reduction of the monument.<\/p>\n<h2>Echoes of the 2017 Lawsuit Over Bears Ears<\/h2>\n<p>In 2017, Patagonia was one of several groups to sue the Trump Administration after the president reduced the national monument\u2019s size. Rather than launch new standalone cases, these new suits seek to revive 2017 filings that challenged Trump\u2019s 2017 proclamation, which also shrank Bears Ears. Courts administratively closed these suits in 2021 when President Biden reinstated the monument boundaries.<\/p>\n<p>The Antiquities Act allows a president to establish a monument, but not shrink one, the lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>On July 13, Trump signed an executive order<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>reducing the size of Bears Ears and nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah by nearly 3 million acres combined, leaving them at a fraction of their originally designated size. Trump\u2019s cuts will strip protections from the monument boundaries on September 11. Conservation groups say the reduction puts fragile ecosystems at risk and threatens lands that are sacred to the local Indigenous tribes.<\/p>\n<p>In his July order, Trump said that the monument\u2019s designation \u201csuffers several flaws under the Antiquities Act,\u201d specifically that new national monuments should occupy the\u00a0\u201csmallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s proclamation also claims that the monuments\u2019 designation was unnecessary to protect many of the historical and scientific resources. During a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/rollcall.com\/factbase\/trump\/transcript\/donald-trump-remarks-executive-order-national-monuments-july-13-2026\/\">signing event<\/a>, Trump said that at Bears Ears, \u201cYou can\u2019t do anything. You can\u2019t go hunting. You can\u2019t go fishing. You can\u2019t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By mid-August, at least nine mining claims have been staked within the previous monument boundaries, <em>The New York Times<\/em> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/08\/14\/climate\/mining-trump-utah-monuments.html\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo say, as the president did, that visitors \u2018can virtually not even walk on\u2019 the monuments is more than just hyperbole,\u201d Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert wrote in a September 2 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"article-content-link text-brand-primary underline hover:text-brand-primary\/85 break-words overflow-wrap-anywhere underline-offset-[3px]\" rel=\"noopener\" data-afl-p=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patagonia.com\/stories\/planet\/activism\/were-suing-to-protect-public-lands\/story-178745.html\">statement<\/a>. \u201cIt is simply not true. Visitors can hike, backpack, mountain bike, rock climb (mostly in Bears Ears), canyoneer, hunt, raft, fish\u2014the list goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Delahanty, an Earthjustice lawyer involved in the 2026 case, told <em>Outside<\/em> that it may take months to resolve the lawsuit, and his office is most concerned about what happens when protections end on September 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that mining companies couldn\u2019t even wait for the 60-day delay to pass speaks volumes about the risk of harm to the monuments\u2019 irreplaceable cultural sites, unique wildlife, and scenic landscapes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><span hidden=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/outdoor-adventure\/environment\/patagonia-lawsuit-bears-ears-trump\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outdoor retail giant Patagonia has rejoined tribal nations and conservation groups to fight the administration\u2019s attempt to strip protections from nearly three million acres of public land. Indian Creek is a world-renowned rock climbing and recreation area located in the northernmost section of the Bears Ears National Monument (Photo: Matteo Agnoloni\/Getty Images) Published September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}