Trump Just Slashed Two Utah National Monuments by Nearly 90%
Presidents have long used the Antiquities Act of 1906 to create national monuments, but the law has also been tested over whether a president can shrink them. In Utah, that fight became national news on December 4, 2017, when President Donald Trump ordered major reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.
Trump’s 2017 order cut nearly 2 million acres in Utah
On December 4, 2017, Trump signed proclamations reducing Bears Ears from about 1.35 million acres to roughly 201,876 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from about 1.87 million acres to about 1 million acres, according to the White House proclamations. Combined, the change removed federal monument protections from nearly 2 million acres in southern Utah.
The Interior Department said in 2017 that the review followed an executive order Trump signed in April of that year. Then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended changes after reviewing large monuments created since 1996, according to the department’s report.
Bears Ears had been designated by President Barack Obama in December 2016, while Grand Staircase-Escalante was created by President Bill Clinton in September 1996. Trump announced the rollback at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, with Utah elected officials including Senator Orrin Hatch and Governor Gary Herbert backing the move.
Southern Utah became the center of the fallout
The cuts directly affected San Juan County, Kane County and Garfield County, where the two monuments are located. At Bears Ears, the rollback split the monument into two smaller units, called Indian Creek and Shash Jáa, according to the 2017 proclamation.
Tribal nations and conservation groups responded quickly. A coalition including the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe filed suit in federal court in December 2017, arguing Trump lacked authority under the Antiquities Act to reduce the monument.
What was not immediately settled in 2017 was how land management would change across every affected area in Utah. Federal agencies did not release a full parcel-by-parcel public accounting that day of how recreation, grazing, mineral leasing or cultural site protections would shift across all newly excluded acreage.
The dispute centered on presidential power and land use
The White House said in 2017 that the reductions were meant to end what Trump called “a massive federal land grab.” Utah leaders who supported the move said local control, energy access and grazing concerns had been overlooked under earlier monument designations.
Opponents pointed to archaeology and tribal history. Bears Ears contains thousands of cultural and archaeological sites, and tribal groups said the landscape holds burial sites, rock art and ceremonial locations that needed broader protection, according to court filings and public statements made in 2017.
For Utah residents and visitors, the practical meaning changed again on October 8, 2021, when President Joe Biden restored both monuments to their prior boundaries. That restoration did not erase the 2017 action, but it did reset management and kept the legal debate over presidential authority in the national spotlight.
