Trump cuts Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments by about 90% each
President Donald Trump signed proclamations July 13, 2026, reducing the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah by about 90% each. The action cuts the monuments’ combined area from more than 3.2 million acres to less than 303,000 acres.
The proclamations reverse protections that had been restored by the Biden administration and reopen a long-running national debate over how the federal government manages public lands with cultural, archaeological and environmental significance.
What changed
The exact new acreage of each monument was not established in the available reporting. The combined reduction, however, represents a major change in the amount of land covered by the monument designations.
Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante contain archaeological sites, cliff dwellings, petroglyphs and canyons. The areas also include coal and uranium deposits, adding potential resource-development interests to the dispute over the boundaries.
The action does not mean the land was transferred to Utah or to private owners. It changes the scope of the federal monument protections. The available reporting did not document the operational effect of the proclamations on specific mining or drilling permits, and it did not establish that mining or drilling began as a result.
Tribal and political divide
Bears Ears was created at the request of tribal nations, and five tribes were honored in the designation. The monument is jointly managed by tribes and federal agencies under an agreement, making the boundary decision particularly significant for tribal cultural resources and federal-tribal land management.
Utah officials supported reducing the monuments. Tribal leaders and environmental advocates criticized the action, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
The disagreement reflects competing views of what the monument designations should protect and how decisions about public lands should be made. Supporters of the reduction view the smaller boundaries as a change in federal land policy. Critics argue that shrinking the designations puts culturally significant sites and environmentally important landscapes under less protection.
A reversal in monument policy
The two monuments were established or expanded by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Trump’s proclamations therefore represent another reversal in the federal government’s approach to the sites, following the Biden administration’s restoration of protections that had previously been reduced.
The president’s authority to protect historic, archaeological and culturally significant sites comes from the Antiquities Act of 1906. The law has been central to the creation and subsequent political disputes surrounding national monuments.
Because the affected lands include archaeological and cultural sites as well as coal and uranium deposits, the decision may influence future arguments about conservation, recreation, tribal interests, mining and energy development. It also could become part of broader litigation over the limits of presidential authority and the management of federal land.
What happens next
The available reporting did not establish the legal status of any forthcoming challenges. It also did not identify a specific court filing, deadline or implementation schedule tied to the July 13 proclamations.
For now, the verified change is the presidential action itself: two major southern Utah monuments are substantially smaller, with their combined protected area reduced to less than 303,000 acres. The consequences for individual permits, future development and any legal challenges remain to be determined.
Sources
- Trump scales back 2 Utah national monuments, Associated Press
- Trump signs orders to scale back federal protected land in Utah, Reuters
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