Note to readers • This story is made possible through a partnership between The Salt Lake Tribune and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

A majority of Utahns opposed shrinking Bears Ears National Monument before President Donald Trump drastically slashed its size last week, according to multiple polls conducted over the past few years. Those findings contrast with statements from Utah leaders who argued the cuts reflected what Utahns wanted.

President Donald Trump issued executive orders last week shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments by roughly 90%. He announced the change flanked by members of Utah’s congressional delegation and Gov. Spencer Cox.

The two monuments, which totaled about 3.3 million acres in southern Utah before Trump issued his orders, were created by Democratic presidents despite protests from Utah’s elected Republican leaders.

At Monday’s executive order signing in the Oval Office, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy said that opposition included “the locals who are worried about losing multiple uses on these federal lands,” and said that Trump was “listening to the people of Utah” in reducing the monument’s size.

“It was very unfair to the people of Utah,” Trump said, “and now fairness has been brought back.”

But separate polls conducted before Trump downsized the monuments show that most Utahns and other Western state residents favored keeping their existing designations.

“It is very contradictive of our findings,” said Michaelann Nelson, a professor of environmental rhetoric at the Utah State University campus in Price. “They’re kind of picking and choosing which Utahns they’re paying attention to and listening to.”

Researchers with Utah State University surveyed state residents in 2023, 2024 and 2025, finding 61% of Utahns either supported or strongly supported preserving Bears Ears as a national monument in 2024 and 2025, with just 19% opposed or strongly opposed.

And 53% of Utahns opposed or strongly opposed reducing the size of Bears Ears, while 26% supported the idea. The remaining 21% neither supported nor opposed shrinking the monument.

Nearly half — 46% — opposed Utah pursuing legal action to overturn the Bears Ears National Monument designation, which was initially created by President Barack Obama in 2016 under the Antiquities Act. It included 1.35 million acres, but has now been reduced to about 121,000 acres.

Grand Staircase-Escalante wasn’t included in the Utah State University study. President Bill Clinton designated that monument in 1996, and it eventually reached nearly 1.9 million acres after some adjustments by Congress. After Trump’s recent order to cut the monument, it now includes just over 181,500 acres.

Nelson, the lead author, said she focused her surveys on Bears Ears because it was newer and a bigger focus of Utah politicians’ ire at the time. But she expects Utahns’ sentiments toward Grand Staircase-Escalante are similar.

“In some ways, perhaps [Utahns would be] even more in favor of Grand Staircase,” Nelson said, “just because we’ve existed with it for more than 20 years.”

Jessica Schad, a professor of sociology and director of the university’s Community and Natural Resources Institute, oversaw the survey efforts. She suspects Utahns’ attitudes toward monuments haven’t shifted much in the months since researchers conducted their outreach.

“It seems like this issue has become really politicized,” Schad said, “and our politicians aren’t taking into account what residents are preferring.”

The poll included 468 respondents in Utah, and the university tapped sociologists based in rural parts of the state so the results didn’t overrepresent residents in the more urban Wasatch Front.

“We use high-quality, really rigorous survey methods,” Schad said.

Other surveys conducted across multiple Western states showed similar sentiments about national monuments to the Utah State University poll.

A total of 91% of voters in Western states wanted existing national monuments kept in place as of January, compared to 88% last year and 80% in 2017, according to the annual Conservation in the West Poll conducted by Colorado College.

Its 2026 study included interviews with voters in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. About 24% of respondents lived in rural areas or small towns, 24% lived in cities and the rest lived in suburbs. Politically, 36% identified as Republicans, including 35% who said they supported MAGA, another 36% were independent and 28% were Democrats.

The survey found support for existing national monuments was strong across party affiliations, with 87% of Republicans, 92% of independents and 96% of Democrats supporting them. The share of MAGA supporters who wanted to keep existing national monument designations in place grew from 81% in 2025 to 87% this year.

“We’ve asked about this many times over the years,” said Lori Weigel, a principal with New Bridge Strategies, a Republican public opinion research group that assists Colorado College with its annual poll. “What we have seen very consistently in the data is that people want additional protections for these public lands.”

A separate December 2024 survey by New Bridge Strategies found 71% of Utah voters supported keeping Bears Ears protected as a national monument, and 74% felt the same about Grand Staircase-Escalante. Another 75% of Utahns surveyed backed a president’s ability to create more national monuments.

Utah politicians, including Cox and Sen. Mike Lee, have asserted Democratic presidents went too far with the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears designations. The 1906 Antiquities Act allows presidents to protect sites of historic and scientific interest as national monuments, but directs presidents to preserve “the smallest area compatible with the proper care” of those lands.

“These multimillion-acre monuments that are bigger than the state of Delaware certainly do not fit that designation,” Cox said at Monday’s event with the president.

The monument designations have brought increased visitation to the Bears Ears and Escalante areas, a statement issued by the Utah Senate notes. That puts a strain on land management agencies and law enforcement, causing “degradation” at the sites.

Hunting, fishing, OHV riding on designated trails and other recreation were allowed in both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — activities that are sometimes prohibited at other national monuments. Bears Ears also had an inter-tribal commission that federal agencies consulted for management of the monument and protection of its resources. Trump’s order disbanded that body.

The Conservation in the West Poll found 90% of Native American voters said existing national monument designations should be protected, and 71% said they should “definitely” be kept in place.

Nearly 90% of Utahns support Native American tribes having a strong role in managing ancestral lands, according to the 2024 New Bridge Strategies survey, and 81% said that the incoming Trump administration should keep agreements with tribes in place for managing Bears Ears.