President Trump formally reconfigured two big national monuments in southern Utah on Monday, shrinking them by roughly 2 million acres and establishing five smaller units — a public lands declaration unlike any ever made by a U.S. chief executive.
“You know how best to take care of your land,” the president said to a large audience at the state Capitol. “You know best how to conserve this land for generations.”
Calling the designation of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments an abuse of federal authority and the work of “distant bureaucrats,” the president added: “I’ve come to Utah to reverse federal overreach and restore the rights to this land to your citizens.”
The proclamations Trump signed reduce the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante monument to 906,000 acres, while Bears Ears, which was 1.35 million acres, will shrink to 228,800 acres.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.