Two national monuments found in Utah, but loved by Coloradans, are set to be drastically reduced in size thanks to a July 13 proclamation signed by President Donald Trump.

About 45 miles west of the Utah-Colorado state line, Bears Ears National Monument will be reduced from 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,100 acres – a size reduction of about 91 percent. Meanwhile, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is located about 130 miles west of the Utah-Colorado state line, will be reduced from 1.87 million acres to about 181,500 acres – a 90 percent reduction in size.

For the sake of comparison, the largest national monument in Colorado is the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, near Cortez, which is around 176,000 acres in size – about 5,000 acres smaller than Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s reduced size at 181,500 acres. Meanwhile, Colorado’s largest state park, State Forest State Park, is about 70,800 acres and Rocky Mountain National Park is 265,847 acres (415 square miles). The City and County of Denver spans about 99,025 acres. Prior to the size reduction, both Utah national monuments outsized the state of Delaware, which spans about 1.25 million acres. The total amount of land to be removed – about 2,927,400 acres – is significantly larger than the entire territory of Puerto Rico, which spans about 2.2 million acres.

The Trump administration is billing the move as “rightsizing” the national monuments: “The proclamations reduce these monuments to appropriate sizes that allow for common sense land use in these areas.”

A press release on the matter reads as follows: “The specific landmarks, structures, and objects of historic and scientific interest that the Antiquities Act and monuments safeguard will continue to be protected, while the surrounding lands not relevant to such protected landmarks, structures, and objects will now be available for multiple-use, sustained-yield management.”

The press release from the White House describes Trump’s decision as “ending the overreach and abuse of the Antiquities Act,” describing protections set up by this act as “[restricting] the uses of America’s public lands,” seeming to take issue with how protections under the Antiquities Act, which has a focus of preserving places of historic and scientific interest, includes landscapes, places of biodiversity, viewsheds, and remoteness. Land set to be removed from the national monuments will now be open for uses like “grazing, timber harvesting, fishing, hunting, resource development, infrastructure upgrades, and motorized recreation.”

The press release also addressed Trump’s role in signing the Great American Outdoors Act during his first term, describing it as the “single largest investment in America’s national parks and public lands in history and the most significant conservation achievement since Teddy Roosevelt’s presidency,” also noting that during that same term, he “designated 1.3 million new acres of wilderness, added 1,645 miles of new trails to the National Recreation Trails System, and expanded hunting and fishing opportunities across more than 2.3 million acres of land.”

Back and forth related to both national monuments has taken place in recent years, drawing quite a bit of criticism from members of the outdoor recreation community around the country.

In the case of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, this area was designated by Clinton in 1996, with a recent press release reporting that this was part of an effort to “prevent development of significant coal reserves and other resources on the Kaiparowits Plateau.” It was initially about 1.7 million acres, with Trump reducing its size by 860,000 acres during his first term. Biden then made it larger than ever, increasing its size to 1.87 million acres, with Trump now reducing it more than his initial 2017 size reduction.

As far as Bears Ears goes, this was established by Obama during his second term, in 2016, at 1.35 million acres. In 2017, Trump issued a proclamation to reduce the original acreage by 1.15 million acres while also adding 11,200 acres that were not previously included. In 2021, Biden brought its size to 1.36 million acres.

While some support the move as a means of opening these vast stretches of land up to additional uses, much of the criticism stems from how the change may allow for uses that irreversibly alter the landscape. Several Native American leaders have also expressed concern in how this removes protection of land holding cultural and historical significances for their tribes.

Will this change be permanent or will the next president step in to alter the size of these national monuments once again? We’ll have to wait and see.

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