US President Joe Biden on Friday has signed 3 proclamations set to restore environmental protection to 2 Utah national monuments and marine conservation areas in New England, Fox News informed.
All these protections have been removed during former US President Donald Trump’s mandate.
The protections that were restored were the ones for Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monuments.
Before signing all the documents, Biden said that national monuments and parks are the identities of the American people and that they are a birthright that is passed from one generation to another.
Restoring the protection for the Bears Ears Monument sets back the boundaries that were placed by US President Barack Obama in 2016, but also retains protection for additional 11,200 acres that were added by Donald Trump in 2017.
This action now will assure that the overall protected area of this National Monument covers 1.36 million acres.
The Republican Governor of Utah Spencer Cox said that he is disappointed by this decision that covers the National Monuments Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears, whose protections were reduced by Trump in 2017.
The first time that Grand Staircase-Escalante was protected was in 1996. The move of President Biden restores the area of protection which now amounts to 1.87 million acres.
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