Spotlight: Lawsuits erupt as Trump plans to slash Utah national monument areas

by Peter Mertz

DENVER, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Trump Administration's announcement that it will dramatically reduce the size of two Utah national monuments hit a stonewall of resistance across America Tuesday.

Corporate giants REI, Patagonia, The North Face, and Canadian Arc'teryx started negative advertising and pledging money toward legal efforts to stop the reversal of the two previously protected national monuments.

President Donald Trump's visit to the western state of Utah Monday to sign proclamations slashing the areas of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments was met with protests and indignation, leaving the White House scrambling to defend its position.

"With the action I'm taking today, we will not only give back your voice over the use of this land, we will also restore your access and your enjoyment," the president said in a speech at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City.

But environmental groups, expecting a different presidential goal - opening the land to corporate developers and the oil and gas industry - started filing lawsuits.

Late Monday, the Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and seven other environmental organizations filed an injunction in the federal court in Washington, D.C., suing Trump, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) chief Brian Steed.

Calling Trump's Monday proclamations "unlawful", the 60-page suit says the action "exceeds his authority under the U.S. Constitution..." and leaves "remarkable fossil, cultural, scenic, and geologic treasures exposed to immediate and ongoing harm."

Bears Ears was created by former President Barack Obama in 2016 and Grand Escalante by Bill Clinton in 1996.

Bears Ears is co-managed by the BLM, the U.S. Forest Service and several native American tribal groups that have lived in the scenic area for thousands of years.

Within hours after Trump's announcement, a coalition of five American Indian tribes filed the first of many lawsuits that flooded America's courtrooms Monday.

"They declared war on us today," Shaun Chapoose, a member of the Ute tribe, told the Salt Lake Tribune.

"If they think we're not prepared to protect it, they're kidding themselves," Chapoose added.

"This goes back to the 1880s when the federal government targeted native Americans and stole our land at gunpoint," said Loni Kepaa, a member of the Ogallala Sioux tribe.

"Dismantling these monuments is Trump's latest gift to the corporate interests who backed his campaign," Ben Schreiber, senior political strategist for Friends of the Earth (FOE), posted Monday.

"Donald Trump is overseeing the largest elimination of protected land in U.S. history," Schreiber said.

"The legal battle is just beginning. This will drag out for years, and it will probably end up in the Supreme Court," said Dara Kessler, a Florida legal analyst.

"The powers given to the president under Article Two of the Constitution does not give him the authority to do this," Kessler told Xinhua. "This is not a national security issue that might require such action."

"This may be a case of Trump doing something that will generate headlines and motivate his base," Seattle lawyer and Washington, D.C. insider David Richardson said.

"It will be reversed later by the courts, when his base has stopped paying attention," Richardson told Xinhua.

In a statement Monday, the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) said the move would hurt the economy and jobs - two of Trump's declared priorities.

With Patagonia President Rose Marcario leading the charge, OIA announced earlier this year it was pulling its two lucrative annual conventions out of Salt Lake City because of local support for the federal land protection reversals.

"The President Stole Your Land," Patagonia's homepage stated Monday.

The president's announcement is "detrimental to the 887 billion U.S. dollars outdoor recreation economy and the 7.6 million American jobs it supports," OIA said in a statement Monday

During the presidential visit Monday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Utah's capital as Trump told the nation that the Bears Ears area would be reduced by 85 percent, and Grand Staircase Escalante by 45 percent.

The White House responded with a defense of the president's position.

It said on its website that other presidents have reduced national monument sizes, and that the move "will not sell or close any National Parks."

The statement said the Trump-ordered April review of 27 national monuments created since 1996 was not done behind closed doors. Zinke personally met and held more than 60 meetings with local stakeholders, including numerous tribal groups, it added.

FOE responded by filing a lawsuit to compel the Department of Interior to comply with a Freedom of Information Act by producing notes, records, and documents pertaining to Zinke's activities and communications regarding the decision.

"Make no mistake about it, this is all about padding the pockets of Trump's rich corporate oil and gas buddies," Kepaa said. "It's all about money and greed."

"Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground," Schreiber posted on FOE's website, underlining the American environmental group's prediction of the utilization of the once protected lands.

Trump is shrinking the monuments despite the fact that over 99 percent of the 2.8 million public comments received by the Department of the Interior opposed changing the current boundaries, FOE stated. Enditem