Update • What’s left of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante? See the new maps.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Monday afternoon that shrank the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments — again.

The two orders collectively cut nearly three million acres out of monument protection, including 1.69 million acres of land from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and 1.24 million acres for Bears Ears National Monuments — about 90% of the land previously protected in each monument.

These southern Utah landscapes have been caught in political crosshairs for decades, and environmental groups opposed to the reduction called the move “illegal.”

“We’ve done something that was, I think, very desperately needed,” Trump said during the executive order signing. “Was very unfair to the people of Utah, and now fairness has been brought back.”

What the changes mean for Utah’s monuments

Lands cut from the monument will now be open to mining, applicable to mineral and geothermal leasing laws. Both monument proclamations say that the areas have resources such as uranium, copper and zinc that are critical to the nation’s “resource independence” and “national security.”

“There are meager resources in the monument, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to stake claims.” Steve Bloch, legal director of Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said.

The proclamations also instruct the Interior Secretary to “maximize public access” for both motorized and non-motorized recreation.

Trump’s latest Bears Ears proclamation also disbands the Bears Ears Commission, which consists of representatives from the Hopi Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah Ouray and Zuni Tribe to inform the monument management decisions.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called it “a big day for Utah.”

“We’re grateful that the president has has made a determination that we need to right size these monuments,” he added during the signing ceremony.

Trump first reduced the size of the protected red rock landscapes in southern Utah in 2017. Then, in 2021, President Joe Biden restored Grand Staircase-Escalante to its original boundaries and expanded Bears Ears to its original size and added around 12,000 acres that were part of the adjusted Trump boundaries.

“Both of these monuments were created over the unanimous opposition of Utah’s federal delegation, our governors, the county commissioners the locals who are worried about losing multiple uses on these federal lands,” Rep. Celeste Maloy said during the signing ceremony.

President Bill Clinton designated 1.7 million acres as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. The monument eventually reached nearly 1.9 million acres after some adjustments by Congress.

President Barack Obama proclaimed 1.35 million acres in southeast Utah as the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016.

Presidents have power to designate national monuments under the Antiquities Act. The act does not say anything about reducing or eliminating them, though. That has been the subject of legal battles and conversations since Trump first reduced the monuments.

“The Antiquities Act is a one-way grant of authority from Congress to the president to establish national monuments,” said Bloch. “It does not come with the authority to undo them.”

Bloch told The Tribune that the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance plans to sue over the monument size reductions.

The Trump administration believes it has the legal authority to shrink the monuments. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora C. Petit said that the Antiquities Act allows a president to modify a monument in a memo released in May 2025.

‘A living cultural landscape’

The lands protected in both monuments are the ancestral homelands of several tribes, and inter-tribal coalitions for both monuments have advocated for and helped steward the monuments.

Tribes were not informed or asked about the decision to reduce the monument boundaries, said Autumn Gillard, Southern Paiute and coordinator of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, in a statement.

“That’s unacceptable,” she continued. “Today’s action is a direct strike against the federal government’s duty to consult with Tribes. It also profoundly disrespects our intergenerational Traditional Knowledge by destroying a framework for Tribal co-stewardship over our ancestral lands in which we invested years of effort. Today’s action cannot stand.”

Tribes were part of a years-long consultation process that shaped the current management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante, the coalition said.

The creation and management of Bears Ears also was shaped significantly by tribes. The land was initially protected after five tribes petitioned Obama to designate the area as a national monument, and Obama’s monument proclamation created a formal structure for tribal involvement through the now-disbanded Bears Ears Commission.

“For Diné people, Bears Ears, or Shash Jaa’, to me is not simply public land,” said Davina Smith-Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and Navajo representative on the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition. “This is a part of our ancestral homeland and a living cultural landscape. Our histories are here. Our medicines are here. Our prayers, ceremonies and stories are connected to these places.”

“Right now, our communities and this landscape are already dealing with the impacts of the massive wildfires, so to hear in the middle of all of this that Bears Ears could once again face reduction has been deeply upsetting,” she added, mentioning the Babylon Fire which has burned over 100,00 acres in southeast Utah, including parts of the Bears Ears.

Shrinking the monuments creates “uncertainty,” Smith said.

“Our connection to Bears Ears or Grand Staircase does not change because a boundary changes on a map,” she added, “but those boundaries determine what protections exist for the landscape.”

How the changes might affect recreation

The changing monument boundaries create uncertainty for local guides and outfitters, said Nate Waggoner, co-owner of Escalante Outfitters, a lodge, restaurant, outdoor store and guide service.

“Every time something like this happens, it just feels like an affront to our businesses and our way of life,” he said. “It’s hard for us. We’ve invested a lot in these communities.”

He called the changes “heartbreaking.”

The changes also create uncertainty for visitors, who were already asking Waggoner questions at his restaurant on Monday evening.

Last time the monument was reduced, people drove vehicles where they weren’t supposed to, Bloch said, because of misunderstandings about what road signs they did or didn’t have to follow anymore after the monument boundary changed.

“There’s understandably a lot of confusion on the ground,” Bloch said.

The Blue Ribbon Coalition, a motorized recreation advocacy group, celebrated the monument reductions on Monday.

“The previous plans that got approved on these monuments restricted huge areas of them to motorized recreation and other forms of recreation that still require motorized access of some kind,” said Ben Burr, director of the Blue Ribbon Coalition. “We think this will result in a much better position for the Utah recreation economy to be able to let the recreation users go in and access these lands.”

During the signing ceremony, Trump said the previous monument boundaries closed off access.

“You can’t do anything. You can’t go hunting. You can’t go fishing. You can’t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it,” he said.

Hunting, alongside of a variety of other recreation, was allowed in both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, according to the Forest Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

“You can hunt and fish wherever you want on Grand Staircase,” said Waggoner, who guides fishing trips in Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Biden’s monument proclamations for Bears Ears highlighted its “unparalleled rock climbing” at Indian Creek, “the paradise for hikers, birders, and horseback riders” in Elk Ridge and other “hunting, backpacking, canyoneering, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking” destinations.

Similarly, Biden’s Grand Staircase-Escalante proclamation emphasized the area’s “world-class outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock climbing, hunting, hiking, backpacking, canyoneering, river running, mountain biking, and horseback riding.”

The economies of Grand and Kane Counties grew after the designation of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, according to an analysis from Headwater Economics, an independent research non-profit, and San Juan County saw large growth in income.