Colorado National Monument (Photo: National Park Service)
The Trump administration has started reviewing the boundaries of protected public lands with the intent of increasing mining for minerals and drilling for fossil fuels, actions that could drastically change existing national monuments, a category that includes the Colorado National Monument.
Trump’s newly-appointed Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, issued a 7-page directive (pdf) on February 3, 2025 to implement Trump’s January 20 Executive Order #14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” which has a goal of boosting mineral mining and fossil fuel exploration and production on all federal lands. Burgum’s directive orders federal officials to consider redrawing the boundaries of federally-protected areas that were set aside by past presidents to protect their unique landscapes and cultural resources.
Previous conservation policies are now gone
Burgum’s directive tells federal land managers to “suspend, revise, or rescind” previous conservation policies that include bans on oil, mining, and gas drilling in sensitive locations on public lands. Burgum gave officials at federal agencies until February 18 to submit plans on ways to comply with his order, which includes taking “actions to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands” to facilitate more fossil fuel production and mining for minerals.
National parks and monuments are considered “withdrawn,” or protected, from extractive industrial activities like mining and drilling.
Conservation groups are worried that changes in the borders of national monuments will shrink or eliminate them in favor of increased mining and drilling for fossil fuels.
