Trump slashes Utah land protections

President Trump on Monday cut large swaths from two massive, controversial national monuments in Utah, opening areas to potential activities like oil drilling, mining and grazing. The reductions, announced on a trip to the Beehive State, represent a strong rebuke of former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and open Trump to near-certain lawsuits in an area that is largely legally untested. Trump signed proclamations scaling back Obama’s 1.4-million-acre Bears Ears National Monument to 220,000 acres — an 84 percent reduction — and Clinton’s 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to 1 million acres — a reduction by nearly half. It’s the largest-ever rollback of protected areas in history, environmental groups say. Bears Ears is now in two separate monument units, and Grand Staircase-Escalante is in three units. Both monuments on federally owned land in the southern part of the state have long been opposed by Utah leaders. Obama and Clinton created them under the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents authority to unilaterally protect any federally owned area from development, with few restrictions. “Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington. And guess what? They’re wrong,” Trump said. “The families and communities of Utah know and love this land the best and you know the best how to take care of your land.” The scale-backs come after months of deliberations led by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante have been at the center of a national debate over monuments and their permanence, fueled by an executive order earlier this year in which Trump asked Zinke to review dozens of previously created monuments for potential changes. “Past administrations have severely abused the purpose, spirit and intent of a century-old law known as the Antiquities Act. This law requires that only the smallest necessary area be set aside for special protection as national monuments,” Trump said. “Unfortunately, previous administrations have ignored the standards and used the law to lock up hundreds of millions of acres of land and water under strict government control.” Trump made the announcement in the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, alongside the state’s entire Republican congressional delegation. Sens. Mike Lee and Orrin Hatch both spoke before Trump, praising his decision to shrink the monuments...more