Trump Signs Orders to Downsize Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase National Monuments

On Monday, President Trump curtailed the protected area of two Utah national monuments by almost 3 million acres, setting the stage for a legal contest regarding a president’s authority to diminish such designations.

The president enacted two executive orders that drastically reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to under 10% of their prior footprint. These landscapes, celebrated for sandstone canyons and expansive mesas, provide critical wildlife habitat and safeguard archaeological treasures vital to Native American communities.

In his initial term, Trump previously downsized both monuments following appeals from leading Utah Republicans, liberating roughly 2 million acres for oil extraction, uranium mining, and other commercial uses. Legal challenges by tribal nations and environmental advocates ensued, and President Joe Biden later reinstated broad safeguards before any definitive court ruling.

Indigenous groups and conservation organizations are poised to initiate further litigation against the latest reductions. The outcome may profoundly affect land preservation nationwide, possibly jeopardizing numerous other monuments and exposing millions more acres to development.

Beyond this action, the administration has pursued multiple measures to promote utilization and recreation on public lands. For example, in May, Trump moved to ease limitations on off-road vehicle access across most national parks.

Prior to signing the directives in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump noted that the current cuts exceed those of his first term, during which Bears Ears was reduced by 83% and Grand Staircase by 47%.

“We are returning even more land to the people of Utah than we did previously,” Trump stated.

The entirety of Utah’s six-person congressional delegation, alongside Governor Spencer Cox, attended the ceremony; all are Republican.

Cox remarked, “It is evident that monument designations should encompass only the minimal area needed to protect antiquities, and these multi-million-acre sites, larger than Delaware, plainly violate that standard.”

National monuments are legally shielded from development, akin to national parks. However, whereas Congress establishes parks, presidents designate monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Numerous tribal leaders and environmental attorneys contend that the Antiquities Act does not empower Trump to resize these monuments. They argue the century-old statute permits designation but not reduction or elimination.

Conversely, many Republicans, ranchers, and energy producers assert former presidents misused the law by locking up immense tracts. They highlight its requirement that monuments be confined to the “smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”

Obama established Bears Ears in late 2016, while Clinton designated Grand Staircase in 1996, thwarting a proposed coal mine.

Following the earlier reductions, the Trump administration auctioned oil and gas leases on over 76,000 acres bordering Bears Ears. Most were later voided by Biden, and according to Melissa Simpson of the Western Energy Alliance, the industry shows scant interest in drilling inside the monument.

Simpson said in a statement, “Despite prolonged claims by environmental groups, Bears Ears has never been a notable oil or gas prospect.”

The monument’s name derives from twin buttes towering above the canyons of southeastern Utah, dominating the regional terrain.

Grand Staircase refers to stacked sedimentary formations extending from Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon, where paleontologists have unearthed tyrannosaur and other dinosaur fossils exceeding 74 million years in age.

Both areas now sustain hundreds of species such as bighorn sheep, elk, and mule deer, and harbor thousands of culturally significant tribal sites, including burial grounds, cliff dwellings, and rock art.

Bears Ears serves as ancestral land for five tribes—Navajo, Hopi, Ute Indian, Ute Mountain Ute, and Pueblo of Zuni. The Biden administration brokered a landmark co-management accord with them.

Anthony Sanchez Jr., Zuni councilman and coalition co-chair, described a sense of whiplash.

“One administration supports you, then you’re right back to square one,” he said in a Monday interview.

Sanchez expressed concern about vandalism threatening the monument’s rock art.

“Even under current boundaries, we face such problems,” he noted.

Scott Braden of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance confirmed the group will litigate against the reductions.

Braden stated, “We are committed to defending these monuments and will contest this unlawful action in federal court. We trust the president’s reckless measures will be overturned and the protections renewed.”

Ben Burr of the BlueRibbon Coalition, which advocates off-road access, pledged to defend the administration’s action judicially.

Burr wrote, “Right-sizing monuments to statutory limits is not an assault on public lands but a means to keep them accessible. We will keep fighting in courts and Congress to end Antiquities Act abuses.”

The dispute may ultimately reach the Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Roberts has indicated the Act merits scrutiny.

In a 2021 opinion, Roberts wrote that reserved land must be minimal “compatible” with management, yet “somewhere along the line, this restriction has ceased to pose any meaningful restraint.”

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