President Trump attempts to unlawfully shrink two Utah national monuments and eliminate the role of tribes in managing their ancestral lands.
On July 13, 2026, President Trump again attempted to gut Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The new proclamations go much further than Trump’s unlawful actions taken in 2017, when he tried to shrink Bears Ears by 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by almost half. This time, President Trump is attempting to virtually eliminate both monuments, slashing almost three million acres from the two, reducing Bears Ears from 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres (91%), and cutting Grand Staircase-Escalante from 1.87 million acres to just 181,541 acres (90%).
Misrepresenting what is allowed in national monuments during the signing ceremony, the president said of national monuments that “[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.” Hiking, hunting, fishing, and even grazing, wood collecting, four wheeling, and mountain biking are all allowed in national monuments.
Attacks on national monuments unpopular with voters
To be clear, slashing national monuments is as unpopular as it is unlawful. According to polling by Republican polling firm New Bridge Strategy, 71% of Utah voters across party lines support continuing to keep Bears Ears as a national monument, and 74% support continuing to keep Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument.
Additional polling of voters in seven Western states found that support for keeping existing national monument designations in place has increased from 88% in 2025 to 91% in 2026.
Attack on role of tribes in managing ancestral lands deeply unpopular
Even more unpopular is President Trump’s action that voids a landmark co-stewardship framework for Grand Staircase-Escalante and terminates a historic cooperative agreement with the five tribes of the Bears Ears Commission — the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Zuni Tribe — to collaboratively manage Bears Ears.
The July 13, 2026 order goes much further than Trump’s failed 2017 vision for Bears Ears, in which only half of the shrunken monument was to be managed with tribes, while their authority was weakened by adding a local elected official.
This time, according to the new proclamation, collaborative management “is hereby disbanded and terminated, and the Secretaries shall have no obligation to engage, consult, or coordinate with the [five tribes of the Bears Ears Commission] or a comparable entity…”
In polling, 89% of Utah voters said that it’s important for Native American tribes to have a strong role in managing their ancestral lands. Four in five voters said the government should keep the agreement with tribes regarding how Bears Ears is managed in place, and nearly nine in 10 Utah voters said tribes deserve a strong role in helping manage their ancestral lands.
Showing contempt for Native nations
These actions come on the heels of the Utah congressional delegation’s failed attempt to eliminate Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s protective 2025 management plan.
That plan established a landmark co-stewardship framework after years of collaboration between federal land managers and the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition. Today’s action effectively dismantles that framework without consulting the affected tribes, disregarding the federal government’s trust responsibilities and treaty obligations.
The administration’s action also upends years of collaborative planning at Bears Ears National Monument. Over three years, the five Bears Ears Commission tribes worked with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to develop the Bears Ears management plan. By integrating Indigenous knowledge into land management, the plan marked a historic step forward in public lands stewardship and reflected a shared commitment to protecting one of the nation’s most significant cultural landscapes.
Instead of honoring these unprecedented collaborations, President Trump broke the federal government’s agreements with tribes to co-steward Grand Staircase-Escalante and collaboratively manage Bears Ears, showing contempt for the Native nations that have worked tirelessly to protect these irreplaceable cultural landscapes.
Gut Utah’s monuments, repeal the law that allowed them
The attempted assault on our national monuments is also happening in Congress. On January 16, 2025, Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-NV, introduced a bill that would repeal the section of the Antiquities Act of 1906 that allows presidents to designate new national monuments.
Called the “Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act,” the bill contradicts how Rep. Maloy’s constituents feel about national monuments.
According to polling, 75% of Utah voters support presidents’ ability to protect public lands as national monuments and nearly two-thirds (65%) of voters support keeping the number and current size of existing national monuments. This support is strong across political parties. With little time left in the current session of Congress, it seems unlikely Maloy will succeed, but we’ll let you know when there’s an opportunity to voice your opposition if the bill starts to move.
Second verse, same as the first. A little bit louder and a little bit worse!
Though we’re heartbroken that the president has again tried to unlawfully roll back protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante and open these lands to drilling and mining, we’ve been here before.
Thanks to support from folks like you, we held off any major damage to these monuments during Trump’s first term, and we’ll do so again. We remain steadfast in our support for the future of these monuments, and we’re resolved to stand up for them. From litigation to advocacy, media to legislation, we’ll be there. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are simply too important to sacrifice.
Please take a moment to let decision makers know that you oppose these attacks and ask them to stand up in defense of our national monuments by adding your name to this petition.
