Trump announced the change during a speech in Salt Lake City during a visit to Utah in early December.
Both monuments were covered under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allowed presidents to place federal lands under legal protection, first used by former President Theodore Roosevelt to make Devil’s Tower in Wyoming a national monument.
Former President Barrack Obama designated the Bears Ears National Monument in December 2016 just before he left office. Former President Bill Clinton protected the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. Bears Ears will go from 1.35 million acres to 228,784 acres, a reduction of 83 percent in acreage.
Grand Staircase-Escalante will be reduced from 1.88 million acres to 1,006,341 acres, a reduction of 46.5 percent in size.
This decision has received applause from several sectors of the agricultural community. “Previous administrations abused the power of the Antiquities Act, designating huge swaths of land as national monuments without any public input or review,” said Dave Eliason, president of the NCBA Public Lands Council in an NCBA press release.
“Rural communities in Utah and across the West have paid the price. Sweeping designations locked up millions of acres of land with the stroke of a pen, undermining local knowledge and decimating rural economies.”
After the monument protection is lifted, grazing livestock and other traditional uses for the land will be put back in place. “We are grateful that today’s action will allow ranchers to resume their role as responsible stewards of the land and drivers of rural economies,” said Craig Uden, president of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association in the press release.
“Going forward, it is critical that we reform the Antiquities Act to ensure that those whose livelihoods and communities depend on the land have a voice in federal land management decisions.”
Ethan Lane, executive director of NCBA’s Federal Lands and the Public Lands Council, said in an NCBA podcast that this is only the beginning of Trump’s efforts to loosen federal oversight on public lands.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke conducted an extensive review of U.S. national monuments and submitted a report to the White House in December that suggests several monuments fit for reduction. Lane said these reductions are expected to elicit legal retaliation from environmental groups, but are expected to continue in the future. 
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Carrie Veselka
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- Progressive Dairyman
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