WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2026 (Gephardt Daily) — Surrounded by Utah elected leaders including Gov. Spencer Cox and Sen. Mike Lee, Pres. Donald Trump on Monday signed executive orders to reduce Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments by a total 2.93 million acres.
- One Proclamation reduces the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from approximately 1.87 million acres to approximately 181,500 acres.
- The other reduces the size of the Bears Ears National Monument from approximately 1.36 million acres to approximately 121,100 acres.
Each national monument’s sizes, and protected land, was cut by more than 90%.
“We’ve done something that was, I think, very desperately needed,” Trump said during the executive order signing. The previous designation “Was very unfair to the people of Utah, and now fairness has been brought back.”
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called it “a big day for Utah.”
“We’re grateful that the president has made a determination that we need to right size these monuments,” he added during the signing ceremony.
Trump had reduced the size of the national monuments during his first term, and the original boundaries were restored by President Joe Biden.
“We deeply value these natural, cultural, and scientific treasures,” Cox said, in a released statement.
“The question has never been whether to protect them, but how to protect them best. The historic landmarks and other nationally significant resources remain under federal protection, while allowing agencies to direct limited resources toward caring for these specific sites rather than millions of surrounding acres.”
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Photo: BLM.gov
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance criticized the decision, and has vowed to fight it in court.
“Today’s action makes it clear that Utah is the epicenter of Republican efforts to dismantle and obliterate America’s system of public lands,” the SUWA response news release says.
“President Trump’s outrageous attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monument was taken at the urging of Utah politicians – Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis, Governor Spencer Cox, and the others who championed this action. These two landscapes deserve to be protected for current and future generations of Utahns and Americans, not opened to exploitation,” said Scott Braden, SUSA executive director.
“The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is committed to defending the monuments and will challenge this unlawful decision in federal court. We are confident that President Trump’s reckless and unlawful acts will be rejected and the Monuments restored.”
The Utah House Democrats also opposed the reduction decision.
“These lands deserve the protections that come with national monument status,” the statement says, in part.
“Less than a decade ago, the Trump administration reduced protections for these same monuments despite overwhelming public support and the objections of the Tribal Nations whose ancestors have lived on these lands for thousands of years.”
Future generations, the statement says, “deserve the opportunity to experience these places as they have existed for centuries.”
