Protecting Land: A Long Term Fight - Environmental Humanities Graduate Program

After two Utah National Monuments took a heart breaking hit on Monday, our own Brooke Larsen reminds us to keep our heads up and look to the future with hope rather than dwelling in the disappointment of the monument-shrinking. Brooke’s editorial, “Commentary: We stand with Bears Ears and Grand Staircase for the long haul,” was published by the Salt Lake Tribune. The article calls for those who stood in solidarity at the rally on Saturday and protested Trump’s decision on Monday to keep fighting.

Trumps’s decision to eliminate large portions of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, a stretch of land filled with fossils, unique geology and beautiful landscapes, and Bears Ears National Monument, a recently instated area of protected land that was requested by Native American tribes who hold the land sacred, was not the end of the battle to protect our planet and honor tribal land. Instead, Brooke argues that it is the beginning of a long fight for places that matter and people who have long been silenced. She writes that “Trump’s executive order should fill our hearts with rage and grief. But the actions of the people and the leadership of the tribes should also fill us with hope. The tribes and conservation groups are already filing lawsuits. Whether we’re fighting in the courtroom or singing in the streets, our collective hearts beat stronger than those trying to desecrate.”

Keeping public lands in public hands and protecting the places that matter most to the native people of Utah are not fights that can be won over night. Brooke inspires us to keep momentum and to remember that this decision can be overturned. She reminds those who are lamenting the loss of these lands that “protecting land has never been a short-term game. We stand for the long haul.” Together we can protect our lands from those who wish to take them from us. With leaders like Brooke and the many people who spoke up at the rally and the protest, our movement can make a difference and our voices can be heard.