The Grand Canyon Trust

Landspecial designations:through The work of our cultural landscapes and Utah 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. This work is essential to The work of defending and restoring our national monuments. 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.during 2022, we 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. Gct's Grand Canyon and energy programs oppose threats to The Grand Canyon and Grand Canyon national park, which include continued uranium mining within The Grand Canyon watershed (see energy section below), inappropriate commercial development adjacent to The park, and The degradation caused by bison on The north rim of The park. Also in 2022, The Trust 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 2022, two of The three proposals were withdrawn, partly due to our work. The Trust and The families 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. That eis is now complete, and we are done with our support and advocacy for strong ecological protections. 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. 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 2022, 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 capitol reef national park. In 2022, gct provided leadership among diverse-stakeholder, consensus collaborations to solve specific ungulate grazing problems, resulting in improved protection for pinyon-juniper forests, native grasses, water, and wildlife. Additionally, in 2022, we were able to relinquish and retire a grazing permit, permanently protecting 16,861 acres from livestock degradation. In 2020, gct made a decision to prioritize addressing recreation impacts on The Colorado plateau. Through The development of new long term goal, we committed to working with non-profit and tribal allies to develop a new strategy that will inform federal land management decisions about recreation management going forward. In 2022, we advocated for improvements in land management planning to better address The impacts of recreation at Grand staircase-escalante and bears ears national monuments. 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 june of 2022, we added a water advocacy director to our staff and began to focus on three important areas of water conservation across The Colorado plateau: (1) rural groundwater management reform in Arizona, (2) projects in tribal communities in The san juan river basin, and (3) a healthy Colorado river ecosystem at Grand Canyon that supports native communities.

Energy:gct's energy program aims to address three major issues: achieving carbon neutrality on The Colorado plateau, mitigating The environmental impacts of methane emissions on navajo lands, and preventing toxic and radioactive uranium contamination around The Grand Canyon and on The Colorado plateau.in 2018, The Trust developed a new long-term goal, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality on The Colorado plateau by 2035. We are conducting a replicable carbon budgeting process to measure emissions and offsets across The plateau. We will then develop a proposed action plan for achieving emissions reductions that will form The technical base for necessary and extensive coalition-building work. During The process of conducting The carbon assessment for The plateau, we will engage key potential partners. Partners working in an extensive and well-coordinated coalition will be vital if ambitious carbon neutrality gains are to be made over The coming decade and beyond. Due to The reduction of our staff in The energy program during 2022, we have not yet prioritized main targets for emission reductions, but with The assistance of a fellow we aim to do so in 2023. We continue to conduct advocacy and litigation work in support of The Trust's overall climate objectives in The coal and oil shale realm, and are re-evaluating priorities and strategies following our plateau-wide assessment. Also, we are working with local chapters and The environmental defense fund to advocate for new measures that would regulate methane emissions on navajo nation lands, and important component of our carbon neutrality strategy and our energy program overall.we devoted significant resources to working with az senator mark kelly, az senator kyrsten sinema, and az congressman grijalva on The Grand Canyon protection act (gcpa) during 2022, The latest effort to make permanent The uranium mining ban around The Grand Canyon. The bill had passed The house on several occasions, and in june of 2022, The gcpa received a hearing in The senate energy and natural resources committee and made it through that committee with a 10-10 vote.

Native america:gct's native america 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 sixteen gatherings over The past eight years. In recent years, participants have identified climate change as one of The biggest threats to The native american way of life, 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. During 2022, cpic members gathered in person for The first time post-covid, and discussed rights of nature strategies, structured on tribal knowledge regarding spiritual relationships to The earth, sky, rivers, and other creatures. In The long run, The rights of nature project aims to begin drafting policies, best practices, and recommendations for tribal communities and/or governments to review, based on The intrinsic rights of nature. 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. In 2022, change labs nearly completed construction of a shared co-working space in tuba city, az that will be operational shortly. In 2020, gct made a decision 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 2022, 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. We also advocated for careful consideration of The environmental impacts of newly proposed hydro-power projects in The area.

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 2022, The volunteer program designed and facilitated 16 projects. Over 300 people collectively contributed just under 2000 hours to restoration and research projects across The Colorado plateau.in 2022, The rising leaders program at The Trust provided ten young people with a three week online leadershift program focused on The history of extractive economies on tribal lands and how to build more resilient and sustainable economies into The future. Also, we hosted fourteen intertribal young leaders (ages 18-22) and four adult knowledge holders from navajo, hopi, zuni, hualapai, and southern paiute on a life-changing experience river rafting down The Grand Canyon. It was an opportunity for native young people to not only gain access to this sacred space, but to learn how to honor it appropriately from cultural leaders in their communities.