President Donald Trump on Monday, July 13, signed a pair of presidential proclamations that dramatically scale back the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah, stripping federal protections from nearly three million acres of public land. Under the new orders, Grand Staircase-Escalante is cut to roughly 181,500 acres and Bears Ears to about 121,100 acres, rolling back protections that had been restored after his first-term reductions. Tribal leaders and conservation groups immediately vowed to sue, while Utah officials cheered the move as a correction that restores local use and access to natural resources.
What the proclamations change
The proclamations carve Grand Staircase-Escalante down from about 1.87 million acres to roughly 181,500 acres and reduce Bears Ears from about 1.36 million acres to about 121,100 acres, shrinking protections by more than a million acres each, according to The Washington Post. Those cuts could open large swaths of land with known coal, uranium, and other mineral deposits to leasing and extraction, Axios reports.
Where this fits in the back-and-forth
The move mirrors steps Mr. Trump took in 2017 that were later reversed by President Joe Biden, highlighting a decade-long tug-of-war over who gets the final say on how public lands in the American West are used, as reported by the Associated Press. Utah outlets scrambled to break it all down for residents, and KSL NewsRadio quickly published a local explainer after the announcements.
Local reaction
Conservation groups blasted the proclamations as unlawful and promised to head straight to court. “This action will only bring uncertainty and chaos to places that should instead be protected,” Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Executive Director Scott Braden said in a statement, while the National Parks Conservation Association warned the changes threaten cultural and scientific values. Utah Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee, praised the decision as a long-awaited correction of federal overreach, setting the stage for a fierce legal and political clash across the state.
Legal fight ahead
At the heart of the coming court battles is a question that has never been fully resolved: can a president unilaterally shrink a national monument created by a predecessor? A federal appeals court recently sent Utah’s challenge to Biden’s restorations back to a district court, clearing the way for renewed litigation, according to Utah Public Radio. Legal analysts and environmental attorneys told Bloomberg Law that multiple lawsuits are likely and could move quickly through the courts.
What comes next
The Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management now have to rewrite management plans and decide whether to process lease or mining applications on the lands stripped of monument status, a series of choices that could affect grazing, roads, recreation, and mineral development, according to reporting by Axios. Tribes that make up the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, along with conservation groups, say they will seek injunctions to freeze any changes while judges weigh the legal issues, meaning the next phase of this fight will play out in federal courtrooms as much as in the halls of the Utah State Capitol.
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