President Trump Reduces Two Utah National Monuments by About 90 Percent

President Donald Trump on Monday sharply reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah. Trump issued proclamations under the Antiquities Act that cut each monument by about 90 percent. The two sites originally spanned more than 3.2 million acres and now total less than 303,000 acres combined.

The reductions return the monuments to smaller boundaries than those left in place at the end of Trump’s first term. Grand Staircase-Escalante had been set at 1 million acres and Bears Ears at 213,000 acres after his earlier action. Trump signed the orders in the Oval Office.

“They took the land from the people quite honestly,” he said. ” Utah Gov. ” Grand Staircase-Escalante was created by President Bill Clinton in 1996. President Barack Obama established Bears Ears in 2016 at the request of five tribes: Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Ute Mountain Ute and Uintah-Ouray Ute.

The site is jointly managed by tribal nations and federal agencies. Bears Ears contains ancestral villages, ceremonial sites and objects of cultural significance. ” The monuments also hold coal reserves in Grand Staircase-Escalante and uranium in the Bears Ears area.

The New York Times reported that Native American tribes and environmental groups are expected to challenge the reductions in court. Democratic Sen.