President Donald Trump signed executive orders on Monday that drastically reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah. The action targets the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, shrinking their combined area by more than 90 percent.
According to White House statistics, the combined lands will shrink from more than three million acres to just over 300,000 acres. The order reduces the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from approximately 1.87 million acres to about 181,500 acres. Bears Ears National Monument will decrease from about 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,100 acres.
During the signing event at the White House, President Trump stated that the land had been taken from the people and that he was giving it back. Utah Governor Spencer Cox was in attendance and described the Monday as a big day for Utah, noting that monument designations are intended to be the smallest area possible to protect antiquities.
The reduction affects lands in the southern part of the Beehive State that contain scenic canyons, petroglyphs, and ancient cliff dwellings. While state officials seek development around coal and uranium deposits on the land, tribal representatives expressed opposition. Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, called the move heartbreaking. She stated that from a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is a living cultural site containing ancestral footprints, ceremonies, and traditional medicines rather than just federal public land.
The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Bears Ears National Monument was created by President Barack Obama in 2016 using the Antiquities Act. The Bears Ears monument was the first national monument created following a request by tribal nations and is managed by federal agencies and tribal nations.
