{"id":24909,"date":"2017-12-04T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/colorlines.madeostudio.com\/article\/trump-announces-drastic-size-reduction-bears-ears-and-other-protected-monuments\/"},"modified":"2017-12-04T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T22:00:00","slug":"trump-announces-drastic-size-reduction-bears-ears-and-other-protected-monuments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/colorlines.com\/article\/trump-announces-drastic-size-reduction-bears-ears-and-other-protected-monuments\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Announces Drastic Size Reduction of Bears Ears and Other Protected Monuments"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trump Announces Drastic Size Reduction of Bears Ears and Other Protected Monuments<\/h3>\n

\n By Ayana Byrd<\/span> Dec 04, 2017<\/span>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Today, President Donald Trump<\/a> announced plans to shrink Bears Ears National Monument<\/a> in Utah by approximately 85 percent and reduce the states’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument<\/a> to about half of its current size. <\/p>\n

At a speech<\/a> at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, the president said, \u201cSome people think that the natural resources should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington. And guess what, they\u2019re wrong. Together, we will usher in a bright new future of wonder and wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to The Washington Post<\/a>, \u201cThe move will represent the most significant reductions by any president to designations made under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives the president unilateral authority to protect imperiled sites on federal lands and in federal waters.\u201d <\/p>\n

In April, Trump signed an executive order<\/a> instructing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke<\/a> to review the Antiquities Act<\/a>, with a focus on all national monument designations awarded after 1996 with areas that are at least 100,000 acres. <\/p>\n

 Zinke toured eight monuments and on August 24, he submitted a report that recommended border reduction for at least four. One was the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument that former President Barack Obama<\/a> designated a national monument<\/a> in December 2016. It contains cliff dwellings of the ancient Native Pueblo people and pictograph- and petroglyph-covered walls.<\/p>\n

According to documents obtained by The Washington Post<\/a> on Thursday (November 31):<\/p>\n

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Grand Staircase-Escalante would be split into three areas known as Grand Staircase National Monument, Kaiparowits National Monument and Escalante Canyons National Monument. Bears Ears will be divided into Indian Creek National Monument and the Shash Jaa National Monument, the latter of which will include two well-known ruins, Moon House and Doll House.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In response to the reductions, Ben Schreiber, senior political strategist at Friends of the Earth<\/a>, issued the following statement: <\/span><\/p>\n

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Donald Trump is overseeing the largest elimination of protected areas in U.S. history. Dismantling these monuments is Trump\u2019s latest gift to the corporate interests who backed his campaign. This action is unprecedented and will end up in court. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another environmentalist, Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council<\/a>, said in response to the announcement,<\/span>\u201cWhat\u2019s next, President Trump, the Grand Canyon?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The administration asserts<\/a> that <\/strong>the move will allow for activities that are now off-limits in the protected areas, such as logging in forests and commercial fishing in marine areas. <\/p>\n

 On Saturday (December 2), thousands of protestors gathered at the capitol building in Salt Lake City. \"Keep your tiny hands off our public lands,\" read one sign<\/a>, intended as a message to the President. <\/span><\/p>\n