President Trump signed two proclamations at the Utah state Capitol, cutting the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to less than 40 percent of their original size and opening 2 million acres (3,125 square miles) to “hunting, grazing and responsible economic development.” Tribes and environmental groups said they would go to court to block what a think tank called “the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history.”
“I don’t think it’s so controversial, actually. I think it’s so sensible,” said Trump during a brief visit to Salt Lake City. Trump said his predecessors abused federal law by setting aside too much land. “Our precious national treasures must be protected. And, from now on, they will be. Under my administration, we will advance that protection through a truly representative process, one that listens to the local communities that know the land the best and that cherish the land the most,” he said to applause.
As the president signed the proclamations, one person chanted “Four more years” and another shouted “We love you!”
Under Trump’s directions, Bears Ears will be reduced to two units totaling 228,784 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante will become three units with a total of 1,006,341 acres. President Obama included 1.35 milion acres in Bears Ears in southeastern Utah and President Clinton desgnated 1.9 million acres for Grand Staircase in southern Utah. The new boundaries would become effective in two months and allow activities such as grazing, mining, “active vegetation management,” which could include brush clearing, and motorized travel on trails and roads that existed before the monuments were created.
“Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante may now be opened to new uranium and coal mining operations, respectively. Both are losing protections for important paleontological sites, recreation areas and wildlands,” said the Wilderness Society. “We won’t be alone” in filing a lawsuit against the changes, said the environmental group. The Navajo Nation said Bears Ears is an important site for many tribes but it was being slashed “with no tribal consultation.” Five tribes that endorsed creation of the national monument said they would jointly file a lawsuit against the administration.
On Twitter, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said, “Packed house for @POTUS at the Utah Capitol. Returning land to the people. Restoring access. Protecting resources.” Zinke told reporters that the smaller boundaries would allow uses such as road building and mountain biking on land formerly in the national monuments, according to Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs, who quoted Zinke as saying, “We’re not taking one square inch of federal land and transferring it.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said Trump’s proclamations were “a clear win for rural communitieis who have suffered the consequences of egregious federal over-reach…traditional uses of the land, including livestock grazing, will be restored on public land in Utah.” The NCBA called for reform of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which empowered presidents to create national monuments to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures and other objects of historic or scientific interest.” The law says national monuments should be “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation said national monuments were used “to quarantine millions of acres of already-scarce grazing land, harming farmers, ranchers and strugglig small towns across the West.”
A 1938 attorney general’s opinion says presidents can create the monuments but not abolish them. There is a debate in legal circles over the authority of presidents to adjust the boundaries of national monuments or if Congress must act. “This is yet another pathetic example of Trump’s continued abuse of power in support of special interests,” said the Utah chapter of the Sierra Club. The Farm Bureau said Presidents Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Eisenhower and Kennedy each reduced the size of national monuments.
To read a White House announcement of Trump’s actions, click here.
For a transcript of the president’s remarks at the Utah state Capitol, click here.
The presidential proclamation on Bears Ears National Monument is available here.
The presidential proclamation on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is available here.