Wildlands Network Celebrates the New Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukeveni Grand Canyon National Monument

Pronghorn in the west section of the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. Photo by: Rich Rudow

As of August 8, the United States gained another 917,618 acres of conserved lands where the focus is on shared stewardship of ecology and culture.  

Wildlands Network celebrates this monumental achievement! 

Using authority created over a hundred years ago by U.S. leaders, U.S. President Joe Biden formally designated the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukeveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The designation is designed to permanently protect this special place and the (wild and human) communities that live in and around it.

Wildlands Network was thrilled to see this action taken because the monument lies squarely within the Western Wildway – a conceptual pathway of interconnected wildlife habitat supporting a large chunk of North America’s ecological diversity that stretches from the Brooks Range in Alaska to the Sierra Madre Occidental in Northern Mexico.  

Also known as the “Spine of the Continent”, this pathway was first identified as significant by the founders of Wildlands Network.  

Since 1991, we have supported partners and community leaders to restore, reconnect and rewild as much of the Wildway as possible, with the understanding that doing so creates the greatest likelihood that the diversity of life on the continent can be sustained into the future.

This conservation framework is based on an understanding of well-documented needs of Nature – namely, more space supports more living things, especially those animals, like grizzly bears, wolverines and wolves, that need more room to roam. By protecting an interconnected network of habitat across an entire continent, we can give all of life (including us!) the best chance of a vibrant future here on Earth.  

The monument is also a good reminder that the best conservation ideas take time, are usually built on learning from failure, and require ongoing investment of local communities.   

Staff and supporters of Wildlands Network worked closely on previous iterations of this national monument idea. Decades of effort went into documenting the ecology and cultural significance of the Greater Grand Canyon Ecoregion – a landscape dominated by and shaped by the Grand Canyon and Colorado River but stretching far beyond their physical borders. Countless hours and dollars (made possible by supporters like you!) were spent gathering signatures for petitions, capturing videos and photos of the area, organizing meetings, advocating to decision-makers, writing op-eds, and talking to the press. Conservation, after all, is just people working with people to do what we think is best for Nature.

In 2012, the community celebrated when the area was protected for a 20-year period from new uranium mining, but, when it came to permanent protection, previous presidential administrations and sessions of Congress considered the merits but always found a reason not to act.

Luckily, the local community persevered. So did many of the organizations and their donors who knew that conservation takes patience and learning and passion – with time, all things are possible.

And, in the case of this monument, giving up would never have been an option because of the dedicated leadership of Congressman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), who introduced bill after bill trying to achieve permanent protection. All the while, he worked closely with Tribal leaders across the region to gain a shared understanding of what protections were needed and how their leadership could be recognized and elevated. 

The original stewards of this landscape have not disappeared, many are just dispersed and displaced (by the hands of some of the same historical U.S. government leaders that first officially acknowledged the importance of Grand Canyon) and now re-united through the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition*, which will continue ancestral stewardship in partnership with newer community leaders, like Wildlands Network. 

Now is a time of celebration, but soon a new chapter of work commences. Tribal governments, communities and leaders will join with other local communities, government agencies and organizations like Wildlands Network to determine how best to manage these lands under this new designation. This is when the activities needed to restore, reconnect and rewild this area will be discussed and implemented.

Wildlands Network looks forward to continuing to be a partner in stewardship of this region, beyond the rim of the Grand Canyon, beyond the boundaries of the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukeveni monument, across the entire Greater Grand Canyon, Colorado Plateau and Mogollon Rim Ecoregions. 

This is the scale at which conservation matters. This is the beginning of the next chapter. We hope you will join us in celebrating this historic action and support us in reaching the next milestone to achieve our continental conservation vision. 

*Editor’s Note: According to the Office of Rep. Grijalva, the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition consists of leadership representatives of 13 tribes, including Havasupai Tribe, Hopi Tribe, Hualapai Tribe, Kaibab Paiute Tribe, Las Vegas Band of Paiute Tribe, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, Navajo Nation, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Shivwits Band of Paiutes, Yavapai-Apache Nation, Pueblo of Zuni, and the Colorado River Indian Tribes. 

Cover photo credit: A stunning red rock formation protected within the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. Photo by Rich Rudow