FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Flagstaff, AZ — The Grand Canyon Trust strongly supports a new Senate bill, S-3127 “The Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act,” announced today by Senator Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, to protect public lands around Grand Canyon National Park from new mining claims in perpetuity. Sen. Sinema’s bill offers much-needed permanent protections for the precious […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Washington, DC — Today a coalition of conservation organizations sought intervention and opposed preliminary permits for a series of new dams and reservoirs on the Little Colorado River just a few thousand feet from the Grand Canyon. Earthjustice is representing Save the Colorado, the Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club, Living Rivers, Waterkeeper […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ — The U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act with bipartisan support in a 236-185 vote. The bill is sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva and co-sponsored and supported by Arizona U.S. Representatives Tom O’Halleran, Ruben Gallego, Ann Kirkpatrick, and Greg […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ — The Grand Canyon Trust opposes Stilo Development Group and the Town of Tusayan’s proposal to draw down precious groundwater to enable the massive growth of commercial development at the Grand Canyon’s south rim. The Trust urges the U.S. Forest Service to deny the application for road […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Moab, UT — The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) yesterday set aside a decision by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Kanab Field Office to remove more than 30,000 acres of pinyon and juniper forest and sagebrush from the Skutumpah Terrace area within […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Escalante, UT — Today local and national groups, businesses, and globally respected scientist organizations denounced the Department of the Interior’s release of management plans for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument as another step toward undermining protections for Americans’ national monuments and other protected public lands. Top failures of the management plans released today: […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ — Conservation groups called on Arizona officials today to close a uranium mine near Grand Canyon National Park’s south rim, citing severe and ongoing flooding that threatens to pollute deep aquifers that feed the canyon’s springs. Original mine approvals dismissed flooding as a “remote” possibility. In a […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuba City, AZ — Eleven Native-American-owned start-ups have been selected from a competitive pool to enter the rigorous Change Labs Business Incubator. The incubator, based in Tuba City, on the Navajo Nation, puts entrepreneurs through an intensive 12-18 month incubation program that includes business coaching, marketing, branding, and financial management training. Upon […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MOAB, UT — Utah’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) continues to rush forward a plan for the illegally reduced Bears Ears National Monument that completely ignores the more than 1 million acres removed by an unlawful executive order and leaves most of the culturally and scientifically significant lands unprotected. In a final […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON D.C. — Last night, President Trump announced that he would not implement trade measures to artificially boost the domestic uranium market. The decision deals a blow to two uranium companies — Energy Fuels Resources and Ur Energy — that filed a petition for uranium quotas in 2018 in an attempt to […]
PUBLIC STATEMENT It is truly an honor to speak alongside leaders from Native nations, members of Congress, local elected officials, conservation groups, and hunters and anglers who care deeply about the Grand Canyon and ensuring that its waters and landscapes are, at long-last, permanently protected. Through the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, we can […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BONANZA, UT — Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration to challenge what would be the nation’s first commercial-scale oil shale mine and processing facility. The lawsuit says officials failed to protect several endangered species when they approved rights-of-way across public lands to provide utilities to the proposed oil shale development. High […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY, UT — A lawsuit against the Trump administration’s approval of Alton Coal’s mine expansion near Bryce Canyon National Park was filed today by Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Grand Canyon Trust, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, and WildEarth Guardians. The organizations filed a National Environmental Policy […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON D.C. — Today the Department of Commerce sent the results of its uranium import investigation to President Trump; the recommendations have not been made public. Commerce launched the investigation last summer in response to a petition filed by two uranium mining companies requesting trade protections, including import quotas and domestic-purchasing requirements […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUBA CITY, NAVAJO NATION, AZ — Change Labs is accepting applications for 10 open slots in its Native business incubator. Applications to the 2019 summer cohort must be submitted online at https://nativestartup.org/incubator by April 26, 2019. Formerly known as the Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN), Change Labs offers a year-long incubator […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUBA CITY, NAVAJO NATION, AZ — From now until April 26, 2019, Change Labs is accepting applications for its inaugural “Artist Rezidency” program in Tuba City, Arizona. All practicing Native American visual artists over the age of 18 are eligible to apply for this unique 1-year rezidency program. The selected rezident artist […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Today, the state of Utah filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking exemptions from the Forest Service’s Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The rule is among the nation’s most popular conservation programs, and roadless areas protect the best of the West’s precious drinking water supplies, pristine […]
PUBLIC STATEMENT Today, the U.S, House of Representatives passed S.47, the Natural Resources Management Act, under suspension of the rules, which prohibited amendments to the bill and required a two-thirds majority to pass. “The bill contains numerous conservation wins, and we applaud the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of America’s […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY, UT— Conservation groups today issued a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for approving rights-of-way for pipelines and powerlines that pave the way for the nation’s first commercial oil shale development. The massive Enefit project in Utah’s Uinta Basin would drain billions of gallons of water from […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GRAND CANYON NA, AZ — Today, Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva joined elected officials and tribal and community leaders to announce new legislation to ban new mining claims on approximately 1 million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. Grijalva will introduce the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act on February 26, […]
PUBLIC STATEMENT Below is a transcript of remarks delivered by Grand Canyon Trust Executive Director Ethan Aumack at the announcement of the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act at the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park on February 23, 2019. Rep. Grijalva with supporters of the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act. AMY S. MARTIN Thank […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ — Today, the Grand Canyon Trust released a research report, “Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon Region,” that challenges arguments advanced by two uranium-mining companies — one with significant interests around Grand Canyon National Park — to urge the U.S. to impose import quotas and a “buy […]
MEDIA ADVISORY Venue change: this event will now take place at the Community Building inside Grand Canyon National Park. GRAND CANYON, AZ — On February 23, Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva will be joined by elected officials and community leaders to make an announcement about permanently protecting the Grand Canyon from new mining claims on public […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUBA CITY, NAVAJO NATION — On Wednesday, February 6, 2019, over 40 community members and small business owners from across the Navajo and Hopi reservations gathered in the Tuba City chapter house, the seat of Navajo Nation local government, to weigh in on what services, equipment, and amenities they’d like to see […]
MEDIA ADVISORY TUBA CITY, NAVAJO NATION, AZ — With the help of a $1.2 million grant from the W.W. Kellogg Foundation and support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pakis Family Foundation (a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation), Silicon Valley veteran Heather Fleming has teamed up with the Grand Canyon […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ — The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the mining industry’s challenge to the 20-year ban on new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. The National Mining Association and the American Exploration and Mining Association claimed the Interior Department’s ban is based on an unconstitutional provision […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Results of a poll released today by the Grand Canyon Trust show that Arizona voters strongly support the temporary ban on new uranium mining around the Grand Canyon. The poll, commissioned through bipartisan pollsters Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates (FM3) and Public Opinion Strategies, surveyed 600 registered Arizona […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY, UT — The Grand Canyon Trust and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance are challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recent decision authorizing Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc. to expand the Daneros uranium mine, located about three miles from the original boundary of Bears Ears National Monument. The appeal […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Monday’s report in the Washington Post further proves that the Trump administration’s national monument review has been a predetermined exercise from the very beginning, designed to prioritize extractive uses of protected public lands and waters. It is clear that the Department of the Interior repeatedly ignored science, public opinion, local […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY, UT — Conservation groups today formally opposed the Trump administration’s plan to facilitate the first commercial oil shale development in the United States, a massive Utah project that would generate enormous greenhouse gas and deadly ozone pollution in regions already exceeding federal air-pollution standards. The Bureau of Land Management […]