Published July 13, 2026 05:12PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
President Trump on July 13 signed an executive order reducing the size of two national monuments in Utah by nearly 3 million acres combined, leaving them at a fraction of their originally designated size.<\/p>\n
Under his newly signed order<\/a>, Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument to approximately 121,000 acres and Grand Staircase\u2013Escalante National Monument to approximately 182,000 acres.<\/p>\n Previously, Bears Ears National Monument encompassed 1.36 million acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante totaled 1.9 million acres.<\/p>\n Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, praised the move.<\/p>\n \u201cFor too long, presidents have weaponized monument designations to lock up millions of acres, close roads, restrict grazing, and cut rural communities off from lands their families have lived on and worked for generations,\u201d Lee said in a release. \u201cI thank the President for correcting this abuse and keeping his promise to the people of Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n The move generated a swift move from advocates, Native American tribes, and other lawmakers, who denounced the move as an attack on federally protected public lands.<\/p>\n \u201cOur Tribes were not informed of or asked about this decision, and that\u2019s unacceptable. The federal government must honor its Trust and Treaty obligations to our Tribes\u2014it is not optional,\u201d said Autumn Gillard, a member of the Southern Paiute tribe and the coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition.<\/p>\n President Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish Bears Ears National Monument in 2016. Five Tribal Nations known as the Bears Ears Commission contributed to the original proposal, including the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe.<\/p>\n According to SUWA<\/a>, nearly 100,000 irreplaceable archaeological and cultural sites were covered by the proclamation.<\/p>\n U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, said the move shows the administration\u2019s willingness to \u201cput billionaires and powerful industries ahead of America\u2019s public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not museums. They are living cultural landscapes that hold deep meaning and direct connection to Tribal communities today. To issue this executive action without government-to-government consultation is a slap in the face to all the Tribes who have fought for generations to protect these sacred places,\u201d Heinrich said in a release.<\/p>\n Tracy Stone-Manning, the president of the Wilderness Society and former head of the Bureau of Land Management, said the move was \u201con the wrong side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNational monuments protect extraordinary wildlife, irreplaceable cultural and Tribal heritage, and our freedom to explore some of our country\u2019s iconic landscapes. They belong to all of us,\u201d Stone-Manning said in a statement. \u201cAs our nation marks 250 years, these public lands should be handed down, not over to drilling and mining interests. The Wilderness Society will fight this attack and stand with everyone working to protect these remarkable places.\u201d<\/p>\n For decades, politicians have battled over the size of the two monuments, with many Republicans pushing for more local control to pave the way for grazing and other industries. Presidents have also see-sawed on the monuments\u2019 size, with Trump shrinking their acreage in 2017<\/a> and President Biden restoring them in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re deeply disappointed but not surprised that at the urging of anti-public land zealots like Senator Mike Lee, President Trump appears poised to once again attack the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments,\u201d Steve Bloch, legal director of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), told The Salt Lake Tribune<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n In his order, president Trump said in his order that the monument\u2019s designation \u201csuffers several flaws under the Antiquities Act,\u201d which requires that the reservation of Federal lands for a national monument be confined to the \u201csmallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n The proclamation also claims that the monuments\u2019 designation was unnecessary to protect many of the historical and scientific resources.<\/p>\n \u201cThe relative commonness of these cultural resources within the broader area suggests that the specific instances of such objects found within the Monument are not of particular historic or scientific interest,\u201d the order reads. \u201cFor instance, lithic scatters, projectile points, prehistoric campsites, petroglyphs, and pictographs are found across the American West and are not unique to the Bears Ears region.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservationists disagree, noting that the two areas are home to thousands of years of Indigenous history and culture and hold ecological value.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Utahns, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante aren\u2019t political talking points\u2014they\u2019re living landscapes that sustain wildlife, support local economies, and connect people to some of the most extraordinary places in the world,\u201d the Sierra Club wrote in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAny attempt to dismantle these monuments disregards years of work by Tribal Nations, local communities, scientists, sportsmen, businesses, and conservationists who have fought to protect these landscapes.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the executive order, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture will jointly maintain a management plan for the monuments. The proclamation is expected to go into effect within 60 days, on September 11, 2026.<\/p>\nTribes and Advocates Denounce the Executive Order<\/h2>\n
An Attack on the Antiquities Act<\/h2>\n