"Across the Country, Locals Rally to Protect National Monuments Threatened by the Trump Administration", 10 June 2025

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For 25 years, this stretch of 129,000 acres of the Sonoran desert north of Tucson, Arizona, has been protected as a haven for scientific research, and a buffer against the expansion of existing or new mines to the area. But locals worry the monument’s protections may soon be reduced. Ironwood Forest is one of six national monuments the Trump administration has signaled may be reduced in size to make way for more development and extraction. 

Ironwood Forest—named the Ironwood tree that’s famed for its centuries-long lifespan and vital importance to the Sonoran desert ecosystem—was attacked by the first Trump administration, Quigley, the Arizona state director for The Wilderness Society, told the crowd. Eight years ago, the Trump administration reviewed 22 national monuments for reductions, and Asarco, a multinational mining giant and subsidiary of Grupo México, and the Arizona mining industry pushed for Ironwood’s size to be reduced to expand mining in the area. Local pushback, Quigley said, prevented that. [Asarco’s Silver Bell Mine is located directly across from Ironwood Forest National Monument. The mine has sought to expand into the monument’s boundaries, a key reason the Trump administration has considered downsizing the monument.]

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The rally, hosted by Friends of Ironwood Forest and other conservation groups at the monument named for the tree, was just one of a series of events across the country over the weekend to support the protection of national monuments and the Antiquities Act, the law that allows presidents to create new national monuments, which celebrated its 119th anniversary Sunday.

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Ironwood Forest ... has had broad local support from environmental groups as well as Pima County and Tucson. The only opposition, monument supporters say, is from the nearby mine. The city of Marana, the city of Tucson and Pima County all issued official proclamations recognizing Monday as Ironwood Forest Day. Pima County’s Board of Supervisors has also voted to oppose any reduction of the monument’s size by the Trump administration to facilitate resource extraction.

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“We have a federal administration that has been going through and figuring out how we literally sell off and give away the strength of our country to the highest bidder, turning it into not a government, but a business, so that folks at the top end can profit off of our land, our water, our air, on the backs of our people,” she said.