PUBLIC STATEMENT Because the Grand Canyon Trust is committed to the preservation of wilderness-quality lands and irreplaceable cultural resources on the Colorado Plateau, we cannot support the Emery County Public Land Management Act of 2018 (H.R. 5727/S. 2809) in its current form. The bill is being sponsored by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who pushed President […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE In an inevitable development, a mining company has laid claim to public lands within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The claims for copper and other minerals sit on lands President Trump illegally tried to strip of national monument protections — an action that Sierra Club and a coalition of other groups have challenged in […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ — Mining industry trade groups today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Interior Department’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres of public land adjacent to the Grand Canyon. The requests from the American Exploration and Mining Association and the National Mining Association come […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ – Have an idea for a business? Are you ready to jump in, and don’t know where to start? The Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN) is accepting applications for its 2018 entrepreneurship program from now until February 28, 2018. Applicants must be Native American and live in the Four […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ — The Grand Canyon Trust is pleased to welcome Ethan Aumack as the Trust’s new executive director as of January 1, 2018. Ethan will oversee a wide spectrum of conservation work, from lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s actions to slash Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments, to efforts to […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Havasupai Tribe, Conservation Coalition Celebrate Key Win for Water, Wildlife, Sacred Lands GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK— The Havasupai Tribe and a coalition of conservation groups praised today’s decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Department of the Interior’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims across 1 million […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE President’s abuse of authority strips protections from a priceless cultural and natural heritage that belongs to all Americans. Washington, D.C. — Two days after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation taking an ax to Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah, conservation organizations filed a lawsuit attacking the order as an abuse of […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE President’s abuse of authority strips protections from iconic dinosaur wonderland in Utah and undermines 1906 Antiquities Act. Washington, DC — Hours after President Donald Trump issued a proclamation taking an axe to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, conservation organizations filed a lawsuit attacking the order as an abuse of the president’s power. […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please accept statistics, marketing cookies to watch this video. WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration wants to roll back a 20-year ban to allow uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, according to a Forest Service report formally released today. Today’s recommendations would revise an Obama-era mining ban that sought to protect tribal […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is calling for a reversal of federal mining bans enacted during the Obama administration to protect Grand Canyon watersheds, national forests in Oregon, and other pristine public lands. In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Bishop says he wants to […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ – As required by an April executive order signed by President Trump, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke was to submit his final recommendations on the fate of 27 treasured public lands national monuments, including Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and Vermilion Cliffs, to the president by the August 24, 2017 deadline. […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GALLUP, NM — Residents of the rural Navajo Nation have a new tool to sell products and services through online classified advertisements. The new online marketplace, rezlist.org, creates a space where the public can post new or used items for sale, services, and job openings, as well as events and public information. Chato-Seaton […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUBA CITY, Arizona – Three Navajo entrepreneurs walked away with $5,000 in start-up prize money each, plus a year of business counseling and advising services to get their start-ups off the ground, as winners of the 2017 Innovation Challenge. In January, the Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN) and Catapult Design launched […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FLAGSTAFF, AZ—The Native American Business Incubator Network (NABIN) and Catapult Design are excited to announce the six finalists of this year’s Innovation Challenge, a competition open to Native American entrepreneurs. Up to three winners will each receive a $5,000 cash prize and one year of business counseling and support services (valued at […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Petition asks administrative appeals board to “stay” BLM decision to designate Indian Creek ATV trail MOAB – Last Friday, a coalition of conservation groups (Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Grand Canyon Trust, the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Great Old Broads for Wilderness) appealed a controversial decision by the BLM’s […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Current coal leasing system shortchanges taxpayers, threatens air, water, and climate SALT LAKE CITY— Conservation groups filed a motion in U.S. District Court late Friday to defend a pause in the outdated federal coal-leasing program against a legal challenge by two Utah counties. The pause was put in place by Interior Secretary […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON DC—Today the White House announced President Obama’s decision to designate the Bears Ears cultural landscape of southeastern Utah as a national monument. The move marks the first successful Native American-driven campaign for a national monument following years of cultural mapping and advocacy by a coalition of tribal governments to protect their ancestral […]
MEDIA ADVISORY U.S. Court of Appeals to Hear Back-to-Back Cases on Uranium Mining Threats to the Grand Canyon Region, Thursday Dec. 15 in San Francisco The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco will hear oral arguments Thursday, December 15 on two key cases involving uranium mining on public lands […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Conservation Agreement” Inadequate to Address Threats from Uinta Basin Energy Development DENVER—A federal court yesterday ruled in favor of conservation groups in their challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to deny Endangered Species Act protection to two imperiled wildflowers that live only on oil shale formations in Colorado and […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CROWNPOINT, NAVAJO NATION (New Mexico)—On Friday, October 7, 2016, designers, web developers, business counselors, small business owners, and start-ups from across the Navajo Nation and the country will converge on the campus of Navajo Technical University for a full day of workshops and mentoring sessions at the third annual Change Labs, a […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WASHINGTON, D.C.—A bipartisan nationwide poll released today finds the overwhelming majority of Americans (82 percent) support establishing a Greater Grand Canyon Heritage National Monument. The broad national backing for the monument revealed in the new poll closely mirrors a February 2016 survey of Arizona voters which found 80 percent support for the monument across […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Uranium Mining Pollutes Air, Water, Soil With Heavy Metals, Radioactivity. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.— Conservation groups today asked the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) to deny air permits for three uranium mines near Grand Canyon and to continue monitoring a mine that is no longer active. All of these mines are located within […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Today, Representative Rob Bishop introduced the Utah Public Lands Initiative (PLI). The proposed legislation fails to protect the imperiled cultural resources of Bears Ears, puts important natural and cultural resources at risk to rampant energy development, and undermines protection for priceless red rock Utah lands. The PLI divests Americans of their shared […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch cites potential legal and ethical violations of federal law SALT LAKE CITY‒Conservation, health, and good government groups today sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling for a formal investigation into potential legal and ethical violations in Utah’s extraordinary $53 million taxpayer-funded loan to build […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Fourteen conservation groups submitted formal comments to the Bureau of Land Management’s Vernal Field Office Tuesday urging the Obama administration to deny rights-of-way across federal public lands that would allow an Estonian energy giant to sidestep environmental review and pave the way for the first commercial oil shale project in the United […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE White Mesa, UT—The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and environmental organizations worry that the White Mesa uranium mill, the nation’s last conventional uranium mill, threatens the water quality of vital springs and poses a long-term threat to the Navajo Aquifer, the main source of drinking water for southeastern Utah and northern Arizona. These […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE SALT LAKE CITY— The Bureau of Land Management announced this week that it is moving toward allowing dirty oil shale development that could be a double whammy for the environment, unleashing nearly a half a billion tons of greenhouse gases and consuming vast amounts Colorado River basin water. It would be the […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Agency denies Stilo Development Group’s plan to build road, infrastructure through Kaibab National Forest FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.—Today the U.S. Forest Service rejected a proposal to widen roads and build infrastructure through the Kaibab National Forest that would have paved the way for a sprawling urban development near the southern entrance of Grand Canyon National […]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PHOENIX, Arizona— Conservation groups today called on the state of Arizona to deny air-pollution permits for three uranium mines on the doorstep of Grand Canyon National Park. In comments sent to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, three conservation groups also asked for stricter environmental regulation of uranium mining, citing concerns over […]