Trump Shrinks Utah National Monuments by 90 Percent

President Donald Trump signed executive orders reducing two national monuments in Utah, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, by approximately 90% of their current area. The orders, signed at the White House on Monday, reverse protections restored by former President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump had previously downsized the monuments in 2017 during his first term. The new decrees are even more drastic than the 2017 reductions, shrinking the protected areas to about 10% of their original size. The move opens vast tracts of federal land to potential mining, drilling, and other commercial development, drawing sharp criticism from environmental groups and Native American tribes who consider the areas culturally and ecologically significant.

Global Impact

Economically, the reduction opens federal land to resource extraction, potentially boosting domestic energy and mineral production but risking long-term environmental degradation. Politically, it deepens the partisan divide over public lands management and may trigger lawsuits from environmental and tribal groups, setting a precedent for executive authority over monuments.