Protect Grand Staircase-Escalante

Protect Grand Staircase-Escalante

Congress’s deadline to fast-track repealing protections for Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument has officially come and gone.

On June 11, 2026, the clock quietly ran out in the Senate for the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to pass by a simple majority vote. It now faces a supermajority vote, but the votes simply aren’t there, making future efforts to open these lands to mining and drilling far more difficult.

POW has been in conversations with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and we’re finding common ground on keeping this special place protected.

It’s easy to see why. Grand Staircase–Escalante’s 1.9 million acres of canyons, cliffs, and high desert anchor rural Utah’s outdoor economy, support local jobs, and hold cultural and ecological value that can’t be remade or restored once destroyed. This monument fuels Utah’s $9.5 billion outdoor recreation economy, the kind of economic certainty that drilling and boom-and-bust extraction can’t offer.

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration and allies in Congress moved to gut the monument’s management plan, weaponize the CRA, and reopen surrounding lands to drilling. Had it succeeded, Congress could have wiped out protections with a simple majority vote and blocked future rules that looked “too similar,” locking in weaker protections for decades.

“Grand Staircase-Escalante has provided me with many formative adventures from kayaking down the Escalante River to exploring wild slot canyons, wandering endless mesas, and experiencing one of the few places left where it still feels possible to get lost. Opening this protected landscape to drilling and extraction would not only damage this fragile desert environment, but cause irreparable harm to recreational use and most significantly to the Southern Paiute, Pueblos, and Ute Peoples who regard it as Sacred.” —Angela Hawse, POW Climb Alliance member

When the Outdoor State spoke up, you made it clear: opening this land to extraction is reckless and deeply unpopular.

The threat isn’t gone for good, but we can take a deep breath and celebrate this as a win for now.

Thank you for raising your voice for Grand Staircase.