Trump signs order shrinking 2 Utah national monuments by 90%
Trump signs orders on Utah monuments, takes questions
We are learning more this Monday as President Donald Trump signs executive orders that work to shrink the size of two national monuments in Utah. According to Deseret News, the move targets a combined 5,094 square miles of land. President Trump’s action will reportedly reduce the size of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. U.S. Senators from Utah, Republicans Mike Lee and John Curtis, joined Trump inside the Oval Office for the announcement.
President Donald Trump signed an order Monday drastically reducing the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bears Ears National Monument. Combined, the lands will shrink by more than 90%, from more than three million acres to just over 300,000 acres, according to White House statistics.
Big picture view:
The order reduces the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from around 1.87 million acres to approximately 181,500 acres, while Bears Ears National Monument will go from about 1.36 million to approximately 121,100 acres, U.S. government statistics show.
The backstory:
President Bill Clinton had established Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996 and President Barack Obama created Bears Ears in 2016 using the Antiquities Act. Together, they had covered more than 3.2 million acres, which is about the size of Connecticut.
Red rock formations in the "Valley of the Gods" on April 22, 2026 in Bears Ears National Monument, Utah. Bears Ears has been a controversial Monument since it's creation in December of 2016. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
What they're saying:
"They took the land from the people quite honestly," Trump said at a signing event at the White House Monday. "We’re giving it back."
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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who was in attendance for the signing, called Monday "a big day for Utah," adding that "these monument designations are supposed to be the smallest area possible to protect the antiquities."
Big picture view:
The two national monuments, which are in the southern part of the Beehive State, contain ancient cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, and scenic canyons. On the other hand, state officials want to see development around the uranium and coal deposits on the land.
The other side:
Calling the move "heartbreaking," Davina Smith-Idjesa, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, said the tribe had been bracing for the move ever since Trump returned to office.
What they're saying:
"From a Navajo perspective, Bears Ears is not simply a piece of federal public land," she added. "This is a living cultural site that holds our histories, our ceremonies, our traditional foods and medicines and our ancestors’ footprints."
Dig deeper:
Bears Ears had been the first national monument created after a request by tribal nations. It contains ancestral villages, ceremonial and burial sites, and is part of some of the tribes’ creation and migration stories. It is managed by tribal nations and federal agencies.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press and the White House. This story was reported from Orlando.