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Environmentale groups call the move “just as illegal today as it was in 2017.”
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an order to slash the size of two Utah national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
The decision removes protections from nearly three million acres combined to allow drilling and mining, The Guardian reports.
Trump celebrated the move at the White House. “They took the land from the people, quite honestly,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “We’re giving it back.”
According to The Guardian, this marks Trump’s second attempt to shrink the boundaries, following a 2017 effort that the Biden administration later reversed. Utah Governor Spencer Cox supported the reduction, claiming the massive protected areas exceeded the original intent of federal law.
“We believe that under the Antiquities Act, it’s very clear that these monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities, and these multimillion-acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation,” said Spencer Cox.
A legal fight
Environmental groups quickly pledged to challenge the decision in court. As reported by Reuters, attorneys at Earthjustice called the order a lawless overreach that threatens treasured American landscapes.
“President Trump’s attack on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments is just as illegal today as it was in 2017,” said Heidi McIntosh, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office, in a statement. “The Antiquities Act authorizes presidents to designate national monuments, not to destroy them.”
With visible frustration, McIntosh warned that the decision harms local conservation efforts. “Today’s proclamations are a slap to the face to visitors to public lands across the country, as well as to the local communities and tribes that have worked for years to protect these special places,” McIntosh added.
Tribal leaders also expressed deep grief. According to Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, the decision was heartbreaking because federal officials ignored their legal duty to consult Indigenous nations.
Sacred land
“From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land,” Smith-Idjesa said. “This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines, and our ancestors’ footprints.”
The downsized areas contain ancient dwellings and sacred sites. Conservationists worry that removing protections will lead to the permanent loss of historic treasures for corporate profit.
