Trump expected to reduce the size of Utah monuments

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Environment U.S. & World Utah
President Trump expected to reduce the size of Utah monuments

Sources tell the Deseret News the president is expected to sign executive orders shrinking the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

Published: July 10, 2026, 6:14 p.m. MDT
Updated: July 10, 2026, 6:15 p.m. MDT


Buttes tower over sagebrush in the Valley of Gods at Bears Ears National Monument on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. Tess Crowley, Deseret News

By Eva Terry
Eva Terry is a staff writer with the Politics and the West team, covering energy and the environment.

KEY POINTS
• President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders reducing the size of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments on Monday.
• The monuments have shifted in size between administrations, with Trump reducing them in 2017 and President Joe Biden restoring their original boundaries in 2021.
• Environmental groups and Utah officials are divided over the potential reduction, with critics threatening legal challenges and supporters seeking more local control.
• President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday afternoon shrinking the size of two national monuments in Utah, which currently cover a combined 5,094 square miles, the Deseret News confirmed on background with a Utah source.

The two national monuments — Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears — have oscillated in size through the previous several presidential administrations.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was created by President Bill Clinton in September 1996. Bears Ears National Monument was created by President Barack Obama in December 2016. Both designations received a mixed reception among Utahns.

In 2017, Trump reduced Bears Ears by about 85% and Grand Staircase by about 46%.

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