The Grand Canyon Trust

Landspecial designations through The work of our cultural landscapes, Grand Canyon, energy, and Utah and Arizona public lands programs, The Trust strives to effect change in concert with tribal communities and nations. We authentically support tribal leadership and always support tribal sovereignty. Partnerships with tribal communities and nations serve as The cornerstone of The Trust's conservation work on The Colorado plateau. The designation of The 1.35 million-acre bears ears national monument in december of 2016 was an incredible step forward. Throughout The campaign, if The Trust were a single person, we have been a convener, a coalition builder, an organizer, a researcher, a policy analyst, a scientist, a cartographer, a filmmaker, a photographer, a writer, a litigator, and an advocate. Unfortunately, in december 2017, The u.s. president reduced The size of The monument by 85% and dramatically narrowed The scope of collaborative management. He also shrank The boundaries of Grand staircase-escalante nm, originally designated in 1996, by 47%. However, in october 2021, The biden administration issued new proclamations restoring The boundaries of both monuments. The Trust played a major role in advocating for that restoration and particular provisions within The proclamations that will protect The areas for future generations. We then shifted our focus to The land management planning process underway for both monuments. On bears ears, we and partner ngos supported an intertribal coalition in developing its proposal for ecologically sustainable management of The bears landscape and its myriad cultural and environmental resources. On Grand staircase, we led a coalition of ngos to draft recommendations on how to best manage that landscape. In both cases, those documents were submitted to The bureau of land management, and we expect those comments to produce positive changes in management of The monuments. 2023 saw another huge success in special designations: in august, president biden designated The nearly 1- million-acre baaj nwaavjo i'tah kukveni-ancestral footprints of Grand Canyon national monument at The request of 13 tribes. The Trust's Grand Canyon and energy programs have opposed uranium mining threats and supported this type of protection for The Grand Canyon for decades. Additionally, The Grand Canyon program works to prevent inappropriate commercial development adjacent to The park and to minimize The degradation caused by bison on The north rim of The park. Since 2022, The Trust has worked closely with tribal leaders and park staff to develop a proposal to incentivize increased hiring of native staff at The park. The Trust provided critical support to families that live near The confluence of The little Colorado and Colorado river, on The eastern edge of The Grand Canyon. These families, through their organization save The confluence, held off The development of a giant tram to The bottom of The Canyon in 2018. In 2020, a third proposal for a hydroelectric project and dam (in addition to two proposed in 2019) near The confluence was submitted to The federal energy and regulatory commission. During 2023, we worked to build continued opposition to The proposed big Canyon dam and began pursuing federal regulatory changes to dam permitting in coordination with The hopi tribe. The Trust and its partners continued to build momentum for permanent protective measures such as chapter resolutions, navajo nation resolutions, and federal protections. Public lands in 2009, The Trust helped launch The largest forest restoration project in The u.s. The four forest restoration initiative (4fri) covers a 2.4-million-acre swath of ponderosa pine forest along Arizona's mogollon rim, stretching from The Grand Canyon to new mexico. Across 4fri and The 650,000-acre north kaibab ranger district, we are working with The u.s. forest service, contractors, and dozens of partners to reduce The risk of severe wildfire, improve watershed health, protect old growth and wildlife habitat, and make our forests more resilient to climate change. From 2018-2022, The Trust led discussions among stakeholders and The forest service focused on The rim country eis that analyzed treatment of an additional 1.24 million acres of national forest. The Trust also supports The forest service and local timber operators in accelerating The rate of mechanical thinning to 50,000 acres per year for The coming years. On our north rim ranches, we focus on protecting The ecological, cultural, and scenic values of a vast landscape stretching north from The Grand Canyon's north rim. We accomplish this through developing and implementing science-based land management practices for achieving conservation and restoration objectives, and through ecologically responsible livestock grazing practices. In 2023, we were able to conduct several restoration projects with volunteers at critical springs and lakes. Gct's Utah public lands program undertakes ecological assessments, restoration projects, and policy initiatives within The three national forests of Utah that occupy The Colorado plateau: The manti-la sal national forest, fishlake national forest, and dixie national forest. The program also works within Grand staircase-escalante national monument, canyons of The ancients national monument, and bear ears national monument. In 2023, gct provided leadership amongst a coalition of ngos to develop comments on The gsenm management plan and advocated for a management plan that was appropriately protective for bears ears. We also participated in drafting coalition comments on The manti-la sal forest plan and continue to advocate for meaningful protections for old-growth, imperiled species, and watersheds in this plan. In addition to The work on large scale plans, we commented on, and when appropriate challenged, site-specific projects on both blm and forest service lands. Water The quantity and quality of The Colorado plateau's water is affected by dams, diversions, and groundwater pumping and is threatened by mining, agriculture, grazing, logging, municipal and industrial uses, energy production, air and water pollution, and exports to distant municipalities. As The changing climate makes it more difficult to live on a hotter and drier Colorado plateau, The Trust will develop and deploy advocacy, legal, and market-based strategies to restore, mitigate, and adapt to water scarcity and its multitude of life-threatening challenges. In early 2023, our new water program added a second staff member, a water advocacy manager, to focus on rural groundwater reform in Arizona. This added capacity to a program that is already focusing on other important areas of water conservation across The Colorado plateau, including projects in tribal communities in The san juan river basin, and a healthy Colorado river ecosystem and sustainable water supply through The Grand Canyon that supports native communities.

Energy:in august of 2023, president biden declared The baaj nwaavjo i'tah kukveni - ancestral footprints of The Grand Canyon national monument on just under one million acres of public lands adjacent to Grand Canyon national park. This was a huge achievement by 13 Grand canyon-affiliated tribes. The Trust's energy program devoted all of its resources, plus staff time from elsewhere in The organization to support this effort. This included a Washington, dc fly-in for leaders in The non tribal community, key logistical support as well as informational resources (including important polling) throughout The campaign, and expansion of The broad base of community support. With this much broader success, The Trust's energy program also successfully achieved a long standing goal it shared with tribes: to permanently protect The Grand Canyon region from new uranium mining via a permanent mining ban--a component of The monument proclamation. In addition to our work supporting The Grand Canyon tribes toward a monument designation, we also continued our support for The havasupai tribe in their tracking of, and opposition to pinyon plain uranium mine (formerly Canyon mine). The mine, while not a meaningful contributor to u.s. energy security, sits within The national monument, is exempt from The mining ban, and poses what The tribe views as an existential threat, endangering their water supply and their homelands. The materials mined from this facility are subsequently transported across The navajo nation to a facility that sits just a few miles from The ute mountain community of white mesa. As with The havasupai community, these communities have expressed vocal opposition to these activities and The potential threats they pose. Our work included tracking and raising public awareness around The start of The mine's operations in december 2023, as well as highlighting The environmental justice issues posed by The white mesa mill through our own web presence and The media, providing invited support during The tribe's outreach to relevant government leaders, and making technical information and concerns about it more accessible to The public. For more than a decade, The Grand Canyon Trust has steadfastly opposed The nation's first commercial-scale oil shale mine and processing plant slated for Utah's uinta basin by The estonian company enefit. As planned, The incredibly thirsty project would have drained nearly 10 million gallons of water per day from The green river, a tributary of The Colorado river. Likely owing in part to our legal effort, enefit let go of its federal oil shale lease in august 2023.

Native america:gct's native american program focuses on giving native people a voice and role in The protection of The Colorado plateau. We do this by facilitating dialogue among The eleven native american tribes that have resided across this landscape for thousands of years, and who now control The future of some 30,000 square miles of this region. The heart of this work is The inter-tribal gatherings process, which brings together Colorado plateau tribes to collaborate on addressing environmental challenges and cultural preservation. Gct has facilitated more than a dozen gatherings over The past nine years. In recent years, participants have identified climate change as one of The biggest threats to indigenous communities, and The gatherings have initiated collaborative responses to this challenge. The Trust's native america program has been organizing The Colorado plateau intertribal conversation (cpic) initiative in an effort to reestablish conversations between tribal nations across The Colorado plateau since 2009. Today's cpic gathering group prioritizes traditional knowledge-based climate change solutions, building community, and cultivating long term cooperative networks amongst tribes. Traditional knowledge is used to formulate climate change adaptation strategies. In years past, this traditional knowledge has allowed tribes to overcome periods of drought and extreme weather. Today it forms The foundation for tribes' adaptation strategies on The Colorado plateau. Cpic members are working with kerley valley community farmers to employ navajo and hopi tribal knowledge to assist farmers with traditional agricultural instructions. Farmers are utilizing these instructions and planting techniques to shift their planting seasons, watering patterns, and harvest timing to fit changing climate conditions. These techniques are found in stories, songs, and ceremonies and tell of natural timing systems such as animal migration patterns, and plant morphology which serve as indicators to track when planting, watering, and harvesting should occur.in 2023, cpic conducted its first subcommittee gatherings. These subcommittee gatherings were focused on The rights of nature regional intertribal collective. While other subcommittees met to begin planning The 2024 large cpic gathering, to be hosted in The winter of 2024. Cpic also continued its collaborating efforts with The kerley valley community farmers as they celebrated their 2023 harvest. Another intertribal group organized by The Grand Canyon program, The intertribal centennial conversations group, has been convening since 2018 around The 100th anniversary of Grand Canyon national park. The group now meet three times a year in person in flagstaff, including in 2023, to establish solutions to native-led education, economic paradigms, and stewardship in The Grand Canyon. In november, native entrepreneurs, cultural leaders, and tourism professionals gathered for emergence ii, an intertribal economic summit at The south rim of Grand Canyon national park, to discuss new avenues for native peoples to participate in and benefit from The bustling Grand Canyon economy. Over 60 attendees from eight tribal nations met november 6-8, 2023 for three days of panels and breakout sessions on issues like opportunities for native artists and vendors to sell their work inside The park and authentic cultural tourism.change labs (formerly The native american business incubator network) has been focused on nurturing thriving native american entrepreneurship since 2014. Although change labs became an independent 501(c)(3) organization in 2019, The Trust continues to help ensure its future success by providing staff resources and other support where necessary. Our shared goal is to increase The number of successful new and local native-owned businesses across The plateau by a minimum of ten businesses per year. On june 16, 2023, we celebrated The Grand opening of change labs' newly built 1,400-square-foot facility in tuba city, on The navajo nation. The state of-the-art building offers business workshops, coaching, and space for native entrepreneurs to build community. In 2020, gct decided to prioritize supporting hopi and dine communities to develop regenerative economic projects. The Trust facilitated a series of remote meetings with community members to begin prioritizing ecologically sustainable economic ideas for The region. This is particularly timely in The wake of The closure of The navajo generating station and kayenta mine in 2019, both major employers in those communities. During 2023, we continued to work within these communities, and to advocate to The biden administration that The transition away from coal be navigated in a way that benefits indigenous communities on The plateau.

Other program services:gct's volunteer program is building a constituency of advocates and stewards of public and native american lands on The Colorado plateau. Hands-on restoration and conservation work builds connections between people and The land, and inspires lifelong commitments to conservation. During 2023, The volunteer program designed and facilitated dozens of projects in northern Arizona and southern Utah, focusing on removing invasive species and planting native seeds, restoring stream beds and meadows, building fences around fragile wetlands, and monitoring declining pinyon jay populations. Over 250 people collectively contributed 2,365 hours to restoration and research projects across The Colorado plateau. From internships to leadership training, The Grand Canyon Trust's rising leaders program mobilizes young people across The Colorado plateau to take action on environmental and social justice issues. Highlights from 2023 include The second annual Grand Canyon regional intertribal intergenerational stewardship expedition (riise) down The Colorado river with 18 native youth and a 10-day intensive leadership workshop, called leadershift, focused on a just transition for navajo and hopi communities. 2023 was also our largest internship program to date, with five young leaders who helped to advance The Trust's work while growing their own skills and experience.