- President Donald Trump signed a proclamation reducing Bears Ears National Monument by 91%, from 1.3 million acres to roughly 121,000 acres. Conservation groups, including Patagonia, have reactivated a 2017 lawsuit challenging the reduction.
- Both sides cite the 1906 Antiquities Act — but disagree on whether it gives a president power to shrink monuments.
- Utah officials argue massive monuments lack adequate funding and management resources. Opponents warn the reduction opens the door to mining and energy extraction on previously protected land.
Conservation, archaeology and outdoor recreation groups — including Patagonia — are attempting to stop the shrinking of one of Utah’s largest national monuments.
And they’re doing it by suing President Donald Trump.
On Sept. 2, the groups filed to reactivate a 2017 lawsuit over the shrinking of Bears Ears National Monument after Trump signed Proclamation 11043 earlier this summer, which cut 91% of the 1.3-million-acres.
The proclamation cites an important law activists are still referring to today: the Antiquities Act.
Can a president legally change the size of a monument?
The Antiquities Act is a 1906 federal law that lets the president unilaterally designate federal land as a national monument — without congressional approval.
Trump’s Sept. 2 proclamation invokes the act’s standard to create monuments in the “smallest area compatible with proper care and management.” Trump argued the previous boundaries protected “generic” landscape features rather than specific historic or scientific objects.
“We’re not opposed to monuments,” said Redge Johnson, deputy commissioner of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources. “We’re opposed to the abuse of the Antiquities Act in designating these million-plus acre monuments.”
The problem, Johnson said, with large monuments is lack of funding and lack of resources.
He pointed to Natural Bridges as an example — a monument that’s only 7,000 acres.
“If you go there, there’s a visitor center,” Johnson explained. He said the monument has paths, appropriate signing, fencing and additional parking. “That’s how a monument should be managed.”
Johnson said a monument like Bears Ears — spanning 1.3 million acres — leaves little room for proper care and funding.
“That’s one of the state’s concerns is you’re just declaring these huge monuments, but there’s no additional law enforcement, there’s no additional resources put into it to properly care for those areas,” he said. “How do you fund a 1.3 million acre monument when you know they struggle to fund Natural Bridges — which is 7,000 acres?”
The Antiquities Act — from another point of view
Those who support Trump’s proclamation point to the Antiquities Act — and so do those who oppose it.
Steve Bloch, legal director and attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance — one of the organizations that filed to reactivate the lawsuit — claims the act is a one-way street.
“Under the Constitution, Congress controls public lands and Congress can delegate some of that authority to the president,” said Bloch. “So, with the Antiquities Act, Congress delegated a one-way authority to the president to protect lands as national monuments. Congress did not delegate the authority to erase national monuments ... that were proclaimed or protected by previous presidents. Congress reserved that power for itself.”
Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, agrees, stating he believes the Antiquities Act does not give “power to reduce or dismantle a national monument.”
Utahns have already spoken on where they stand on the issue.
A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute or Politics poll conducted by Morning Consult in August among 789 Utah voters shows while respondents did not support the shrinking of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, voters prefer public lands to be managed at the state or local level.
When asked whether they supported Trump’s decision to shrink the monument, 56% were opposed, 29% supported it, and 15% were unsure.
But when respondents were asked who should have the most say in deciding how public lands are used, they overwhelmingly said local city and county governments (46%) and state governments (36%). Only 9% supported the federal government having the most say in how public lands are used.
“First and foremost, we know that Utahns and Westerners support national monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase and by overwhelming numbers,” said Bloch.
Opponents assert that rolling back protections is meant to benefit mining, oil and gas industries rather than public access, pointing to immediate attempts by companies to stake mining claims.
“Part of the strategy here is just to create even more uncertainty and chaos,” said Weiss. “So, by saying in (Trump’s) proclamation, as he did, that on Sept. 11, it’s open season on mining, sends a signal that the president wants to create chaos across Utah.”