President Donald Trump last week took the first steps toward possible future economic development in national monuments.
Trump signed an executive order that directs Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review national monuments created during the past 20 years by the Antiquities Act of 1906 that are greater than 100,000 acres and report back to Trump on possible legislative or executive action within 120 days. In Utah, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was designated in 1996 and the Bears Ears National Monument was designated in 2016. Each has more than 1.3 million acres.
The executive order does not strip the designation of any monument nor loosen any environmental or conservation regulations on any land or marine areas.
Environmental groups want the Bears Ears designation to remain in place, but Gov. Gary Herbert and the Legislature are urging Trump to rescind it, and members of Utah’s congressional delegation support the rollback. The resolution says Utah is committed to conservation and continued recreational access to the area, “as well as allowing for productive uses, including agriculture, timber production, and energy and natural resource development.” It says that local people are “suffering economic deprivation at the hand of their own federal government, which a national monument tourism economy fails to alleviate.”