President Donald Trump may announce on Monday that he will be shrinking two Utah monuments, a result of a federal review of monuments which started this year. The president has been looking at whether to change the boundaries of Bears Ears National monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and is expected to announce his final decision this Monday.
Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah said that the president has approved his recommendation and accepted his invitation, but the White House didn’t confirm the conversation between the two. According to ABC News, Bears Ears will most likely be reduced from 1.35 million acres to about 180,000, while Grand Escalante’s 1.9 million acres may be halved.
The Bears Ears decision is particularly controversial because the monument is sacred to some Native American tribes. However, Utah officials say that a large portion of land was designated to the monument by President Barack Obama against their wishes, which they deem an abuse of power. The officials add that the monument also had a negative effect on the local uranium mining industry.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke defended the decision to reduce the monument’s size, saying that details about how to change the borders will be additionally decided upon, in order to make sure that archaeological sites remain protected in the process.
Utah Dine Bikeyah, a nonprofit organization which protects public lands of cultural significance, protested the decision, ABC News reports.
“Bears Ears holds our prayers, medicine, and sacred grounds. Bears Ears National Monument honors Native Americans and provides a path for healing. President Trump should leave it alone and respect our people,” a board member of the organization said.
In April, Trump signed an executive order, calling for a review of over two dozen monuments designated under Obama, maintaining they were “a federal land grab.” His upcoming announcement will likely prompt immediate legal action by environmental groups who argue that under the Antiquities Act of 1906 the president does not have the power to eliminate national monuments after they’ve been created.
The Act, however, says that a monument “shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected,” which may be used in favor of shrinking the monument in question. Trump is scheduled to travel to Utah on Monday, but it is unclear whether he would make any announcements about changes to eight other monuments, suggested by Zinke.
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