Trump to reveal plans for monuments on Utah visit

President likely to announce smaller Bears Ears, Grand Staircase

President Donald Trump will travel to Utah Monday to lay out plans to cut the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, according to individuals briefed on the matter.

Democratic presidents established the two national monuments in southern Utah under the 1906 Antiquities Act and both have generated considerable controversy. Barack Obama established Bears Ears, 1.35 million acres that are home to tens of thousands of ancestral Pueblo archaeological sites, nearly a year ago, while Bill Clinton designated the nearly 1.9-millionacre Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended scaling back both monuments, along with several others, as part of a report he delivered to the White House in August. Since then, White House officials have been working with staff at the Interior and Justice departments to draft proclamations they think have the best chance of withstanding an inevitable court challenge from conservation and tribal groups, according to a senior administration official.

Neither the White House nor Interior immediately responded to a request for comment Tuesday.

While officials have not announced how much Trump plans to reduce either monument, they have indicated he intends to shave hundreds of thousands of acres off both.

The president will reduce Bears Ears by more than 1 million acres, Interior officials have informed multiple individuals. And Ron Dean, an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, testified before the Utah Legislature’s Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands this month that “Grand Staircase will probably be somewhere between 700,000 acres and 1.2 million” under the revised designation.

State and local officials, nearly all of whom are Republicans, fought the designation of Bears Ears as a national monument and lobbied the Trump administration to either rescind it or scale it back significantly.

“We’re extremely grateful for the president’s visit … ,” said San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman, R, Tuesday.

FRANCISCO KJOLSETH/THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE This aerial photo shows a view of Arch Canyon within Bears Ears National Monument. It is likely that President Trump will announce on Monday plans to shrink this monument, among others.