President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t explicitly outlined plans to alter the management of federal lands.
But conservation groups say they worry that a second Trump administration could again attempt to rollback some national monuments and environmental protections.
KNAU’s Adrian Skabelund spoke with Grand Canyon Trust Executive Director Ethan Aumack.
Adrian Skabelund: In his first term, Trump drastically reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument. Do you expect the Trump administration to take similar measures this time?
Ethan Aumack: Yeah, I'll say this. We're preparing for the worst, and we're hoping for something better than that in the coming year.
When it comes to monuments, we're not working from a blank slate. We saw what happened under President Trump and his first administration, and we're really expecting this administration to be doing more and maybe much more of the same this time around.
We would also expect a rollback in support for tribal co-stewardship across tribes’ ancestral lands, which would be devastating. We've looked at Trump's last term. We've looked at Project 2025.
When it comes to monuments, we expect President Trump will try to gut Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, as he did several years back, and we also think he might try to do the same at Grand Canyon.
AS: That's the monument that Biden had designated just last year.
EA: That's right. That would be the Baaj Nwaavjo I’Tah Kukveni National Monument.
AS: What is the level of authority that a Trump administration would have to alter or reverse some of these national monuments?
EA: Well, we think this is a matter that's going to be resolved ultimately in the courts.
We believe strongly that it is unlawful for any president to dismantle national monuments as President Trump attempted to do in his first term.
And so we'll be taking that question, as many others will be, to the courts if he tries the same thing again.
AS: You mentioned Project 2025, which has gotten a lot of attention, and got a lot of attention during the past campaign.
Could you speak to anything that document, or those plans, specifically call out for conservation issues?
EA: We’ve spent a fair amount of time looking at Project 2025 and I would say it’s fair to characterize many of the goals with respect to the environment in Project 2025 as dismantling environmental protections.
But we're waiting to see how those priorities play out and whether those are deemed to be actionable by the new administration.
AS: How are you and the Trust preparing for the next four years?
EA: Well, we weren't entirely surprised by the outcome of the election. We knew there was a distinct possibility that President Trump would be reelected. And we began planning for that possibility months ago.
So we've gone program by program looking at what needs to be defended, what can move forward. We've reached out to partners extensively. We'll be doing preparation between now and Inauguration Day to be ready.
We expect President Trump this time around will be faster in taking actions on the ground than he was the first time around. We believe there's a lot that will be done on day one and in the first hundred days. And so we've got to be ready for that.
AS: Given all of this, what does a second Trump term mean for these issues in the Southwest?
EA: This is going to be a very tough, very consequential four years. I really believe that a tremendous amount of damage can be done to the environment, and really in service only to special interests out for political gain.
So we'll be doing everything we can with what I expect to be broad public support to limit that damage.
I'll say, on many of our issues, and with respect to national monuments in particular, all eyes are going to be on actions taken on day one, and we'll be ready for that.
AS: Ethan, thank you so much for giving us some of your time today.
EA: Thank you, Adrian. I appreciate it.
The Grand Canyon Trust is a financial supporter of KNAU.
