Patagonia sues Trump over Bears Ears as Utah monument fight returns to court

The outdoor company has joined a new legal challenge to the Trump administration’s July reduction of Bears Ears National Monument, reviving a public lands battle that began nearly a decade ago.

PARK CITY, Utah — Patagonia is again suing the Trump administration over Bears Ears National Monument, joining Wednesday’s new round of litigation challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to dramatically reduce the federally protected monument in southeastern Utah.

Patagonia announced Sept. 2 that it had joined a coalition of environmental and tribal groups challenging Trump’s July proclamation reducing Bears Ears from approximately 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres, a reduction of about 91%. The White House proclamation confirms the new acreage.

It is the second time Patagonia has sued a Trump administration over Bears Ears. The company joined litigation after Trump reduced the monument in 2017 during his first term.

Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert said Wednesday that the company believes Trump lacks authority under the Antiquities Act to reduce Bears Ears.

“As we did in 2017, Patagonia is joining a broad coalition in a lawsuit challenging the shrinking of Bears Ears,” Gellert wrote in the company’s announcement.

The Trump administration argues the Antiquities Act gives the president authority to alter earlier monument designations.

In his July 13 proclamation, Trump said some resources identified in previous Bears Ears proclamations did not qualify for protection under the Antiquities Act or were already protected under other federal laws. Trump said the new, smaller boundaries represent “the smallest area compatible” with protecting the historic and scientific resources he determined warranted monument status.

Trump also reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from approximately 1.87 million acres to 181,541 acres. The White House said lands removed from the two monuments would become available for multiple-use management, while the resources remaining within the boundaries would continue to be protected.

The Patagonia lawsuit is part of a broader legal challenge over both Utah monuments.

Earthjustice announced Wednesday that conservation organizations had filed supplemental complaints in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking to reopen litigation stemming from Trump’s first reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in 2017. According to Earthjustice, two additional coalitions of monument supporters also moved to renew the litigation Wednesday.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday that Patagonia, environmental organizations, and tribal groups filed challenges to the reductions of the two monuments.

The dispute centers on a question that has remained unresolved through years of litigation: how far a president’s authority extends under the Antiquities Act of 1906.

The law authorizes presidents to designate federal lands containing historic landmarks, historic or prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest as national monuments. It also requires monument reservations to be confined to the smallest area compatible with protecting those resources.

Patagonia and the conservation groups argue that while the law gives presidents authority to establish national monuments, it does not authorize a later president to shrink them. The Trump administration disputes that interpretation, stating in its July proclamations that the law permits a president to alter earlier monument declarations.

The latest lawsuits continue nearly a decade of changes to Bears Ears.

President Barack Obama established Bears Ears National Monument in December 2016 at approximately 1.35 million acres. Trump reduced it during his first term in 2017. President Joe Biden restored the excluded lands in 2021, bringing the monument to approximately 1.36 million acres, according to Trump’s 2026 proclamation. Trump then reduced it again in July.

Grand Staircase-Escalante has followed a similar political path. President Bill Clinton established the monument in 1996. Trump reduced its boundaries in 2017, Biden restored them in 2021, and Trump again reduced them this summer.

A separate lawsuit filed by Utah over Biden’s 2021 monument proclamations also remains part of the broader legal landscape.

On June 23, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s dismissal of challenges brought by Utah and other plaintiffs and sent the case back to federal district court for further proceedings. The appeals court did not decide whether Biden’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamations exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act.

Patagonia’s involvement also revives its long-running role in Utah’s public lands debate. In 2017, then-Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario joined leaders from REI, The North Face and Black Diamond in urging then-Gov. Gary Herbert and other Utah officials to change course on Bears Ears and public lands policy or risk losing the Outdoor Retailer trade show from Utah. Patagonia later withdrew from the show and sued over the first Bears Ears reduction.

Nine years later, the company is back in court.

“We sued in 2017,” Gellert wrote Wednesday. “We’re suing again now.”