{"id":3496,"date":"2026-07-18T07:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=3496"},"modified":"2026-07-18T07:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T07:35:30","slug":"land-grab-or-common-sense-what-trumps-shrinking-of-national-monuments-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=3496","title":{"rendered":"Land Grab Or Common Sense? What Trump\u2019s Shrinking Of National Monuments Means"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump issued two proclamations Monday trimming down the land of two national monuments by more than 90%.<\/p>\n

Read more Big Tech Giant Purged Employees With Disabilities and Medical Leave Using AI, Dozens Claim<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump shrank the two natural Utah monuments, Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, from approximately 3.23 million acres to just 302,600 acres invoking the 1906 Antiquities Act. This law, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, made the \u201cpreservation of archeological and historical sites on public lands\u201d the federal government\u2019s responsibility, according to the National Park Service (NPS) website.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Monday proclamation is the third time Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments have been resized under the Antiquities Act since they became national monuments. In 2017, one year after President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears a national monument, Trump decreased its land size by over 1 million acres and truncated Grand Staircase-Escalante by over 800,000 acres. In 2021, President Joe Biden the monuments using the Antiquities Act so that Bears Ears encompassed 1.36 million acres and Grand Staircase 1.87 million acres.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done something that was, I think, very desperately needed. I think it was very unfair to the people of Utah, and now fairness has been brought back,\u201d Trump told reporters while issuing the proclamations.<\/p>\n

The Antiquities Act has been used by presidents to set land aside as national memorials almost 300 times, according to NPS. In 2016, Obama made Bears Ears a national monument using the law, and 20 years earlier, President Bill Clinton made the Grand Staircase-Escalante a national monument.<\/p>\n

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Roosevelt also used the law he signed to designate the Grand Canyon as a national monument in 1908.<\/p>\n

Some American Indian tribes consider Bears Ears National Monument to be sacred land. (RELATED: Bear Attacks Two Hikers, Officials Shut Down Parts Of Yellowstone National Park)<\/strong><\/p>\n

For \u201chundreds of generations,\u201d tribes \u201clived in the surrounding deep sandstone canyons, desert mesas, and meadow mountaintops,\u201d and the original monument land contains \u201c[a]bundant rock art, ancient cliff dwellings, ceremonial sites, and countless other artifacts,\u201d according to Obama\u2019s Presidential Proclamation<\/span> which established the national monument in 2016.<\/p>\n

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The Grand Staircase National Monument was established to protect the land which has \u201ca unique combination of archeological, paleontological, geologic and bioloic resources, in a relatively unspoiled natural state,\u201d according to Clinton\u2019s 1996 Proclamation. It has been considered \u201can outdoor laboratory,\u201d with hundreds of scientific studies and projects conducted within the monument, according to Biden\u2019s 2021 to re-expand the national monument after Trump\u2019s original proclamation decreased its size. <\/p>\n

Since it has been under the protection of a national monument, the Grand Staircase-Escalante has \u201ca remarkable ecosystem at the landscape-level and sets the stage for future discovery about human, paleontological, and geologic history on the Colorado Plateau,\u201d Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance notes on its website.<\/p>\n

Read more Establishment In Freefall: Gallup Poll Shows Americans Have Lost Faith In Almost Every Major Institution<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump used the Antiquities Act to decrease the size of these national monuments on the basis that the Act allows a national monument to be established so long as it protects objects \u201cof historic or scientific interest,\u201d and that the protected area should be \u201cthe smallest area compatible with their proper care and management,\u201d according a White House fact sheet published Monday. His proclamation makes it so that \u201cthe surrounding lands not relevant to such protected landmarks, structures, and objects will now be available for multiple-use, sustained-yield management,\u201d instead of protected as national monuments. <\/p>\n

His proclamations are a way of combatting \u201coverreach and abuse of the Antiquities Act,\u201d according to the fact sheet. <\/p>\n

Decreasing the land size of the monuments \u201callows for the restoration of public access and traditional multiple-use activities on these Federal lands and waters,\u201d according to the Fact Sheet. Those activities include \u201cgrazing, timber harvest, fishing, hunting, resource development, infrastructure upgrades, and motorized recreation,\u201d although fishing, hunting, and other recreational activities were already allowed at these monuments.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Land Management directed DCNF to the White House\u2019s fact sheet when comment was requested. The White House directed DCNF to the press conference and its fact sheet.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s decision to resize the monuments received the support of the governor of the state they are both located in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful that the President has made a determination that we need to rightsize these monuments. This does not remove the other protections that already exist in those areas, just making the monuments more manageable so that we have the resources necessary to protect these antiquities,\u201d Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said while Trump signed the proclamations.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, environmental groups blasted the move.<\/p>\n

The Conservation Lands Foundation opposes the size reduction of these national monuments, claiming that by reducing the land protected as monuments, it \u201cputs Tribal cultural resources, habitats, animals, clean water, outdoor recreation access, and local economies and communities at immediate risk,\u201d according to its website. <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s proclamation \u201cgoes directly against the historic federal and intertribal collaborative management authority for Bears Ears, and landmark Tribal co-stewardship framework for Grand Staircase-Escalante, defying the sovereignty of Native Nations and the federal government\u2019s duty of Tribal consultation,\u201d according to the Sierra Club, a prominent environmental organization. <\/p>\n

Read more Black Historian Kerri Greenidge Blames Racism After Book Found To Be Riddled With Inaccuracies<\/a><\/p>\n

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President Trump cut down the land of two national monuments from approximately 3.23 million acres to approximately 302 thousand acres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[554,2625,925],"class_list":["post-3496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-national-monuments","tag-utah"],"yoast_head":"\nLand Grab Or Common Sense? 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