120 years ago on June 8, 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law. Through this legislation, the U.S. President has the authority to establish national monuments for legal protection of cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on our national public lands.
One sacred, historic place is the reason I do what I do today: Bears Ears National Monument. The canyons, springs, rivers, and forests here are filled with more than 100,000 cultural and archaeological sites significant to the American story, and rooted in the lineages of many Indigenous people today. Popular support for this region and collaborative public land management between Tribal Nations and federal agencies led President Obama to proclaim Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, and President Biden to reinstate national monument protections in 2021. These victories affirmed what I believed all along, that justice, Indigenous liberation, climate change solutions, and respect for la madre tierra come hand in hand.
Over the next 250 years I want the conservation movement to remember the lesson that this story teaches us: listen to Tribes. Those who fought for Shash Jaa’ (Bears Ears in the Diné language) led the way for more collaborative management agreements in the years to come. As a result, more places of historic and scientific interest like Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and Sáttítla National Monument are protected for future generations. Among other national monuments, Tribal Nations steward these parts of our homeland.
That’s my national monument story. What’s yours?
Our Parks, Our Monuments, Our Stories is an uplifting storytelling campaign to show love for national parks and national monuments through true, personal stories.
If you believe that love is stronger than hate, please tell your story.
When you speak up about a national monument that matters to you and what you want for its future, you become a positive influence. Your story contribution will help GreenLatinos and our compañeros secure sufficient funding for public lands, equal access for all, leaders we can be proud of, and the opportunity to make a dignified living caring for our public lands.
In honor of 120 years of the Antiquities Act please submit a
about your favorite national monument memory (or one that’s important to you if you haven’t been) and what you want for this place in the next 250 years. Storytelling tips here.
El Secretario del Interior, Doug Burgum, compareció recientemente ante el Comité de Recursos Naturales de la Cámara de Representantes para defender el presupuesto del año fiscal 2027 de la Casa Blanca para el Departamento del Interior. Tropezó al responder algunas preguntas importantes.
El presupuesto recorta los fondos del Departamento del Interior en casi un 13% respecto a los niveles de 2026, a costa del Fondo de Preservación Histórica y de los salarios de los servidores públicos del Servicio de Parques Nacionales. ¿Por qué? Para destinar $13.1 millones de dólares a repintar el estanque del Lincoln Memorial de un tono de azul más azul y financiar otros proyectos vanidosos de MAGA, en lugar de reducir el costo de vida, como señaló el congresista Huffman (CA), miembro de mayor rango del partido minoritario. 🤦 El precio del proyecto está inflado y está consumiendo recursos de restauraciones públicas críticas a nivel nacional Algunos puntos destacados de la audiencia:
Tomamos prestadas nuestras tierras públicas de las generaciones futuras. Les debemos la verdad sobre nuestro patrimonio nacional para que puedan formar una unión más perfecta. Dile a tu representante lo que tú y tu familia esperan en cuanto al financiamiento de las tierras públicas. Este presupuesto no es definitivo hasta que el Congreso lo diga.Únete al Colectivo de la Tierra Pública y el Océano de GreenLatinos para involucrarte.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently sat before the House Natural Resources Committee to defend the White House's FY2027 budget for the Department of the Interior. He stumbled around some important questions.
The budget cuts Interior funding by nearly 13% from 2026 levels at the expense of the Historic Preservation Fund, y salaries for civil servants at the National Park Service. Why? For $13.1 million to repaint the Lincoln Memorial pool a bluer shade of blue and to fund other MAGA vanity projects rather than decrease the cost of living as pointed out by Ranking Member Huffman (CA). 🤦 The project price is bloated and taking resources from critical public land restorations nationwide. Some highlights from the hearing:
We borrow our public lands from future generations. We owe them the truth about our national heritage so they can form a more perfect union. Tell your representative what you and your familia expect for public land funding. This budget isn't final until Congress says so.
Join the GreenLatinos Public Land and Ocean Collective to get involved.
On May 4, 2026 Box Elder County, UT commissioners unanimously approved two resolutions in support of a 40,000-acre Stratos data center for the Military Installation Development Authority. The data center proposal now moves into a phase of environmental analysis. Its construction would undermine a natural ecosystem known for irreplaceable wildlife habitat and known to have numerous sacred, historic sites including a nearby Native American burial ground. On May 5, GreenLatinos filed a formal protest of the water rights application that would divert 1,900 acre feet of water from the Salt Wells Spring Stream to the Stratos project. The water right application was cancelled following thousands of protests filed, but Stratos will continue to push this devastating project along.
Climate Pollution
The Stratos data center, famously advanced by Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, would require more than double the electricity consumed by the entire state of Utah in a year, and is proposed to be powered by a remote on-site methane gas plant. The methane plant would need to produce 9 gigawatts of power and would raise the total greenhouse gas emissions from within the state of Utah by about 50%. This is more emissions than from every vehicle on Utah roads combined.
Extreme Heat
With a footprint larger than most Utah towns, the data center could produce an extreme urban heat island effect. An increase of 3-5 degrees fahrenheit would disrupt storm systems in the region and potentially affect weather elsewhere. The 2025-2026 winter season left Utah with only 19% of normal snowpack, a devastating blow to Utah’s number one drinking water source, rivers, and lakes including the ailing Great Salt Lake. Any further disruption of local climate patterns could exacerbate extreme heat disproportionately affecting Utah’s communities of color and harm water access for everyone.
Water
Stratos would need to ultimately purchase 3,000 acre‑feet of water rights on‑site and have 10,000 acre‑feet under contract elsewhere to operate this center. This is more than enough water for over 20,000 households. A loss of 1,900 acre feet from Salt Wells stream was in direct conflict with the state of Utah’s responsibility to steward the Locomotive Springs Wildlife Management Area wetlands and its commitment to restore water levels at Great Salt Lake by 2034.
Public Health
Great Salt Lake is the continent’s largest saline lake, providing critical habitat, nesting and feeding grounds for internationally significant avian species. Increasing climate pollution has spurred ongoing severe drought and heat in the region, leading to declining and historically low water levels at the lake–a deadly failure.
Generations of industrial pollution on the playas of Great Salt Lake has resulted in toxic heavy metals, pathogens, and industrial chemicals depositing into the lake water and playas. With less water, and more exposed, polluted dry land, these toxins become airborne with winds as low as 10 mph. Short and long term exposure to dust and toxic particulate matter is associated with respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, infertility, fetal development impairment, infant mortality, cancer, higher blood pressure, arthritis, juvenile arthritis, premature death, and other morbidity and mortality issues. The majority of Utah’s Hispanic/ Latino residents breathe in the air shed normally protected by Great Salt Lake. The construction of the Stratos data center would effectively deal the killing blow to Great Salt Lake and be responsible for more persistent, deadly dust events.
Cómo puedes ayudar
GreenLatinos will be monitoring this unpopular proposal as it develops. To get involved, donate to GreenLatinos so we can sustain active opposition to this data center and/or volunteer with GreenLatinos to support our organizing power. If you represent a business, organization, religious institution, club or any other organized body of people, sign on to the Data Center Moratorium Now! national sign on letter.
The Wasatch metropolitan area, home of Utah’s capitol and the state’s largest Latino population, is situated along the serene Wasatch-Cache National Forest. There, millions of people visit year round for a diverse range of outdoor recreation opportunities, particularly within the canyons of the Central Wasatch. In Spring 2024, the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) set out to formalize a Big Cottonwood Canyon Winter Transportation Plan to address significant traffic issues and anticipate increasing canyon visitation.
Now, days remain to submit public comment on the plan’s Environmental Assessment, which proposes numerous solutions:
All members of the public are invited to submit a comment on the Environmental Assessment in Spanish and English by January 19.
GreenLatinos is represented on UDOT’s Stakeholder Working Group. Many of our comments from working group meetings, alongside earlier formal written comments are reflected in the proposed action. Overall GreenLatinos supports this plan and it still has significant opportunity for improvement to mark Utah as a global clean energy leader, support thriving wildlife and enhance equal access to our glorious national forest. GreenLatinos submitted a formal, detailed, technical comment to UDOT and the U.S. Forest Service on these matters, and call on nuestra comunidad to make a meaningful difference on this plan.
More details about the plan can be found in Inglés y Español. To submit a comment use:
Importantly, your comment should reflect what you think and why. Tell UDOT the reasoning for your suggestions and opinions. These points summarize GreenLatinos’ recommendations to improve the plan. Please consider integrating them into your comment.
Most of us can use a bus, and many of us need them
GreenLatinos envisions a thriving and equitable society where historically overburdened communities and future generations are able to enjoy a renewed and protected ecosystem, liberated from disproportionate environmental injustices. To that end, transit to trails is among our top priorities. Most of us believe that our children should grow up thriving in healthy natural areas, which is why the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation initiated the Every Kid Outdoors Adventure Challenge.
But neither every child, nor every household has access to a private vehicle. Transportation mobility is a universal barrier blockading equal access to nature’s benefits. A University of British Columbia estudiar on transit in western U.S. cities found that low-income communities, people of color, and seniors tended to have longer trips and less access to natural areas “in spite of the fact they are the groups who rely more on public transit uses.” Salud America found that 27% of urban Latino residents rely on public transit daily and are almost twice as likely to not have access to a personal vehicle compared to urban non-Latino white residents.
Lack of reasonable and affordable transportation options, combined with living in nature deprived places poses a serious public health concern. Public buses connecting all of us to outdoor adventures is a sensible and popular solution.
The case for a Canyon Connection bus service from West Valley Central Station
West Valley City is among the state of Utah’s most nature-deprived communities with a ranking of 4.5-13.5/100 by NatureScore. Residents in West Valley City are in critical need of transit services providing access to forest service land within Big Cottonwood Canyon and Little Cottonwood Canyon in order to improve public health and quality of life for local residents. The Nature Gap study points to complications on respiratory health, mental wellness, and children’s health among people living in nature deprived areas.
According to the EPA EJ Screen, recently restored by the Public Environmental Data Partnership, West Valley City (WVC) residents on average are in the 50-80th percentile–with some census tracts in the 90-95th percentile–of asthma prevalence among adults aged 18 or older. On average WVC residents experienced 80-100 days of extreme heat between 2019-2023. Bus services providing reasonable mobility to recreation areas in Big Cottonwood can ameliorate these public health issues. Two specific populations in WVC are most constantly and adversely exposed to deadly heat and air pollutants: non-white residents, and low-income residents.
In addition to being one of the most nature-deprived municipalities in the state, West Valley City is the state’s township with the largest Hispanic/Latino population. 42.5 percent of WVC residents identified as Hispanic/Latino in 2024.
Further, West Valley City has a higher poverty level compared to the statewide average. WVC also has a significant quantity of census tracts in the 50-100th percentile of low-income residents (meaning a sizable population with a household income less than twice the federal poverty level) according to the EPA EJ screen. The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2025 was $32,150. To clearly interpret this data, a sizable quantity of four-family-member households in WVC bring in less than $64,300 and are considered low-income. Utah Transit Authority’s (UTA) existing ridership mirrors WVC’s demographic. UTA’s 2024 On-Board Study found that more than half of its ridership, 54 percent, “reported annual household incomes under $45,000.” Nearly a quarter of UTA’s bus riders reported annual household incomes less than $18,000—for a family of two or more this is well under the federal poverty level line.
