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By Alice Gibbs
Senior Reporter
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President Donald Trump has once again reduced the size of two of the nation's most contested national monuments, reigniting a decade-long fight over conservation, public lands and presidential authority.
On Monday, Trump signed executive orders dramatically shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in southern Utah. The move removes nearly 3 million acres from monument protection and goes even further than reductions Trump ordered during his first term.
Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans have previously sought to expand drilling, mining and logging on public lands, while removing protections for imperiled species and rolling back rules for conservation.
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“They took the land from the people quite honestly,” Trump said at a signing event at the White House on Monday. “We’re giving it back.”
The White House declined to comment further when approached by Newsweek.
A Newsweek map illustrates how the boundaries of the monuments have changed over time, comparing the monuments' restored boundaries under former President Joe Biden with the reduced boundaries Trump established in 2017. The latest 2026 reductions cut the monuments even further.
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Trump Shrinks Utah National Monuments Again
Trump signed the proclamations in the Oval Office alongside Utah Governor Spencer Cox and members of the state's congressional delegation.
Under the orders, Bears Ears National Monument is reduced from roughly 1.36 million acres to about 121,000 acres, while Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument falls from approximately 1.87 million acres to about 182,000 acres. Combined, the reductions remove nearly 3 million acres from monument protection.
Speaking during the signing ceremony, Trump said the previous boundaries were unfair to Utah residents, while state officials argued the monuments had grown far beyond the size necessary to protect historic and archaeological resources.
The action mirrors a similar move Trump made during his first administration, when he significantly reduced the size of both monuments in 2017.
How Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Changed Over Time
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was established by President Bill Clinton in 1996, protecting nearly 1.9 million acres of southern Utah canyon country known for its geological formations and paleontological discoveries.
Two decades later, President Barack Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument in 2016 following years of advocacy from Native American tribes, who argued the region contains thousands of culturally and spiritually significant sites.
In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears from about 1.35 million acres to roughly 228,000 acres and cut Grand Staircase-Escalante to approximately 1 million acres. The decision triggered lawsuits from tribes and environmental groups.
Biden restored both monuments to their original boundaries in 2021, reversing Trump's first-term reductions.
But now, Trump's latest orders go considerably further. Bears Ears will now be reduced to 121,000 acres, while Grand Staircase-Escalante will be reduced to roughly 182,000 acres—leaving both monuments at around one-tenth of their previously protected size.
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Opposition Groups Promise New Legal Challenges
Environmental groups and tribal organizations quickly condemned the move and signaled that a fresh legal fight is likely.
Earthjustice attorney Thomas Delehanty told Newsweek: “The Antiquities Act gives the president authority to designate national monuments but not to revoke or shrink them. Only Congress has the power to do that. So President Trump completely lacked authority to issue these proclamations—yet another extraordinary abuse of power by this administration.”
Delehanty said that the proposed reductions could be “devastating” to the land, adding: “The proclamations purport to open the excised lands to mining and drilling, which would diminish the landscapes’ aesthetic and spiritual value, degrade sensitive wildlife habitat, contaminate water, and destroy Native American cultural sites. The proclamations would also allow more grazing and off-road vehicle use, with fewer rules and restrictions on those uses, further degrading the monuments’ natural beauty and cultural value.”
Earthjustice added that they will “vigorously challenge these illegal proclamations in court,” although they were not able to share the exact timing at this point.
Similarly, The Center for Biological Diversity has similarly argued that the cuts could open vast areas of previously protected land to mining, drilling and other forms of development.
The group said the monuments' reduced boundaries threaten wildlife habitat, cultural resources and tribal stewardship arrangements that had been established in recent years.
Davina Smith–Idjesa, co-chair of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and representative for the Navajo Nation, said: “For Diné people, this land shapes our way of life. In Diné communities from Navajo Mountain to Aneth, families continue sacred traditions of prayer, harvest medicine gathering, and ceremony. Bears Ears (Shash Jaa’) holds our ancestors’ footsteps and our children’s future. This decision dishonors generations of care and weakens the unity we’ve built to safeguard Bears Ears for everyone.”
Newsweek reached out to The Center for Biological Diversity via email for comment.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Emma Lee-Sang
Update 07/15/26 05:10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Earthjustice.
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