Colorado conservation group slams Trump executive order on national monuments

On Saturday the Center for Western Priorities issued the following statement on President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s executive order intention to “attack national monuments,” including, possibly, nearby Camp Hale:

DENVER — On the evening of March 14, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order rescinding several executive actions put in place by former President Joe Biden. The fact sheet shared by the White House claims Trump’s actions include “Terminating proclamations declaring nearly a million acres [sic] constitute new national monuments that lock up vast amounts of land from economic development and energy production.” However, the fact sheet does not specify which national monuments the order would apply to and no monument reductions were included in the text of the executive order posted by the White House.

The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Deputy Director Aaron Weiss:

“It’s foolish for President Trump to try to shrink or eliminate our national monuments. It’s telling that the president made this announcement in the middle of the night, in hopes that Americans might not notice. There is already a huge backlash in the West against his cuts to national park and forest staffing. If he moves ahead with these attacks, it will only add fuel to the fire and increase the president’s unpopularity in the West. National monuments are good for economic development and help drive the West’s rapidly growing recreation economy. 

“Despite his claims, the only promise Donald Trump is delivering on is his unmatched ability to create economic distress and chaos in every community across the country with his self-interested and exploitative attacks on America’s public lands and the dedicated public servants who steward these places for the benefit of all Americans. Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s lack of transparency and clarity around this latest attack on national monuments confirms what is already obvious: Americans need access to their public lands, and if they try to hand those lands over to Trump’s billionaire friends and foreign mining companies, they will be met with resistance across the West.”

Learn more

• 2025 Conservation in the West Poll results [Colorado College State of the Rockies Project]
• Winning the West poll results [Center for Western Priorities]
• America to Trump: Hands off our national monuments [Center for Western Priorities]
• Report: The outdoor recreation economy by state [Headwaters Economics]