By Kate Groetzinger
In a new report, the Center for Western Priorities identifies the groups and individuals working in tandem to derail good-faith efforts to protect public lands. The National Monuments Disinformation Brigade uses conspiracy theories and fearmongering to generate opposition to proposed national monuments and monument expansions.
The report lays out the players and targets of the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade, using social media posts, press interviews, and more to expose their misleading statements, fearmongering, and extreme beliefs.
The Brigade includes Ben Burr of BlueRibbon Coalition; Margaret Byfield of American Stewards of Liberty; Sean Pond and Aimee Tooker of Halt the Dolores Monument; William Perry Pendley, who wrote the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 chapter on the Interior department, and several others.
This report builds on the Center for Western Priorities’ 30×30 Disinfo Brigade report, which identified groups and politicians working to undermine the goal of protecting 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030, which scientists say is necessary to stem the extinction crisis.
The groups that make up the 30×30 Disinfo Brigade and the National Monuments Disinformation Brigade are closely aligned—some groups appear in both reports and almost all espouse the same ideologies. By working in tandem, these groups spread misinformation far and wide, drowning out good-faith discussions about monument designations and turning the nuanced process of land protection into a false binary of good versus evil. They also tie public land conservation to extremist conspiracy theories in order to activate opposition from people who would otherwise not engage on public lands issues.
The Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Aaron Weiss, Center for Western Priorities deputy director and co-author of the report:
“As President Biden seeks to cement his conservation legacy, it’s important that discussion around new national monuments is based on facts and good-faith engagement with stakeholders and the public, not conspiracy theories and half-truths.
“The groups that make up the National Monument Disinformation Brigade cannot point to evidence for their baseless claims about the impacts of national monument designations. It’s important for Westerners, reporters, and policymakers to see beyond the discord sewn by these groups and remember that conservation is overwhelmingly popular with Western voters and a net positive for the West.”
Kate Groetzinger is Communications Manager for the Center for Western Priorities.