Was President Trump right to shrink two national monuments?

“In Utah, Trump reduces two national monuments,” Dec. 5 news story.

On Monday, President Donald Trump chose, at the whim of out-of-step Utah politicians, to make a decision that will be remembered as historically unpopular among Utah residents. Arguing that Utahns supported his drastic reductions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, he ignored the data indicating Utahns supported leaving both national monuments unchanged by a margin of two to one. Using the bogus argument that people in Utah know better than “distant bureaucrats” how to manage their spectacular public lands, Trump also demonstrated his ignorance of the original monument proclamation which granted a managerial role, based on their “tribal expertise” and “traditional history and knowledge,” to the Bears Ears Commission composed of local Native Americans who fought for this monument. Bears Ears was to be the beginning of healing. But in this administration, “healing” is anathema. Now it’s up to the courts to make this right. ●●●

It is all about money. The state of Utah, along with many other states, have long complained of how much of their land was under federal control. Now that the government has returned control of some of that land back to Utah, guess who controls it now? Utah does. Utah has the power to protect and preserve their own land now. They just have to do it with their own money instead of the federal government’s.