Protections have been rescinded for 90 percent of the land protected within the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Read below to learn more about the action and what you can do to voice your opinion…

For the second time in the last decade, President Trump has drastically cut the size of two national monuments in southern Utah. Created in 1996 by President Clinton, Grand Staircase-Escalante covered 1.9 million acres. President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, protecting just over 1.3 million acres. In his first term, Trump drastically reduced the two national monuments by over two million acres combined. President Biden restored the original boundaries of both monuments and even expanded Bears Ears National Monument.

In the latest proclamations, Trump has reduced the size of Bears Ears National Monument from 1.36 million acres to just 121,096 acres. The 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument has been reduced to a mere 210,000 acres. Both areas were preserved for their exceptional natural beauty and the important role they play in the cultures of several Native American communities. The now-excluded land is available for further development and non-passive uses, such as mineral extraction, road construction, off-highway vehicles, and ranching. Our Cedar Mesa Loop and Grand Staircase Loop routes will be affected by these changes.

In his proclamation modifying Bears Ears National Monument, Trump dismissed the value of scenic areas and natural processes. “[Biden’s Proclamation] protects various generic features and landscapes found within the Bears Ears region, such as ‘deep sandstone canyons, broad desert mesas, towering monoliths, forested mountaintops dotted with lush meadows’ and ‘low bluffs and high mesas.’ While scenic, these generic features are not ‘landmarks,’ ‘structures,’ or ‘objects of historical or scientific interest’ worthy of protection under the Antiquities Act.”

Both proclamations specifically cite the presence of critical minerals as a driving force behind reducing protections under national monument status. These monuments are co-managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the United States Forest Service (USFS).

Many legal experts dispute the president’s authority to reduce the size of national monuments created under the Antiquities Act, which explicitly grants the president only the power to establish national monuments, not to reduce or remove them.

There is no public comment period related to these actions. If you would like to voice an opinion, you can find your representatives using this tool. The Conservation Land Foundation has also created a petition that will email President Trump and automatically identify your federal representatives. For Utah citizens, you can use this tool to identify your state representatives.

You can also contact the BLM as well as the USFS at the national and state level.

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