President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that reduces the size of two national monuments in Utah.
The order cuts the combined area of Grand Staircase‑Escalante and Bears Ears from roughly three million acres to about 300,000 acres, a reduction of approximately 90 %.
Both monuments were created by presidential proclamation, Grand Staircase‑Escalante in 1996 and Bears Ears in 2016.
During the signing ceremony, Trump said the land was being returned to the people.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox attended the ceremony and said the original monuments were excessively large, arguing that the Antiquities Act intends for designations to be the smallest area necessary to protect historic resources.
Native American groups have criticized the reductions, warning that they threaten cultural sites such as cliffside villages, petroglyphs, and other sacred locations.
A Navajo Nation representative emphasized that Bears Ears is a living cultural landscape integral to tribal history, ceremonies, and traditional practices.
National monument protections extend to surrounding lands, restricting drilling, mining, and construction; the original boundaries encompassed significant coal and uranium deposits.
The administration has advocated for increased use of federal lands for energy development, including proposals for mining and oil drilling in other regions.
