Utah’s Voters Would Like Their National Monuments Back, Thank You
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Two-thirds of Utah voters support restoring the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to the previous boundaries they had before President Donald Trump reduced them to less than a quarter of their original size. That’s according to […]
A recent poll shows that two-thirds of Utah voters are in favor of restoring the boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to their original size before President Donald Trump reduced them. This comes as the Trump administration's actions have sparked lawsuits from environmental organizations and conservation groups.
Autumn Gillard, the cultural resource manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, emphasized that Utahns are speaking out against the shrinking of the monuments and the lack of consultation with tribes. The monuments once covered over 3 million acres of public lands in southern Utah but were cut down to just 302,600 acres under two executive orders in July.
These cuts gutted protections for numerous archaeological sites and some of the country's last pristine landscapes. Many Utahns oppose the termination of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and believe that tribal voices are crucial for managing the sites. Despite opposition from the White House, which claims that the previous administration abused its power under the Antiquities Act, the Biden administration has since restored the monuments, but legal challenges are still ongoing.
Written by urgent.news from Mother Jones's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
