Trump slashes Utah national monuments, reigniting public lands fight

President Donald Trump on July 13 signed proclamations that cut Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by more than 90 percent, reopening a battle over tribal sovereignty, federal land control and resource development in Utah. Bears Ears fell from 1.36 million acres to about 121,100 acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante dropped from 1.87 million acres to about 181,500 acres.

The smaller boundaries keep the monuments’ protected objects under federal protection while opening surrounding lands to multiple-use, sustained-yield management. That includes grazing, timber harvest, fishing, hunting, resource development, infrastructure upgrades and motorized recreation. Trump stood beside Utah Gov. Spencer Cox when he announced the move.

Bears Ears, established by Barack Obama in 2016, includes cultural and archaeological sites sacred to several Native American tribes. Grand Staircase-Escalante, created by Bill Clinton in 1996, is known for its rock formations and dinosaur fossils.

Utah officials called the reductions a correction to overly broad protections. Cox said the smaller boundaries would improve management, preservation and public access. The Utah governor’s office put the two monuments together at about 3.2 million acres, more land than all seven of Utah’s other national monuments and all five of its national parks combined, and roughly the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut together. State leaders argued the Antiquities Act requires monuments to be limited to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management.

The decision immediately revived the legal fight that started during Trump’s first term, when he also tried to strip protections from nearly 90 percent of Bears Ears and half of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Joe Biden restored both monuments in 2021, and the related lawsuits were stayed in district court. Earthjustice will challenge the new proclamations, calling them illegal, and arguing the Antiquities Act allows presidents to create monuments but not destroy or shrink them.

Sen. Mike Lee said the new boundaries would let federal agencies focus limited personnel and funding on the monuments’ cultural, historic and scientific objects while improving recreation access, road access, ranching certainty and local control. Sen. John Curtis called the action a more balanced approach to public lands. Democrats pushed back quickly, with Sen. Martin Heinrich saying the administration keeps putting “billionaires and powerful industries” ahead of public lands and the people who own them. The dispute has stretched nearly three decades, from the Bears Ears Summer Gathering in 2015 to the Bears Ears Resource Management Plan finalized in April 2025.