Trump is moving to potentially unmake some national monuments

Bill Clinton creates Grand Staircase National Monument

(Image credit: Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 24 April 2017

On Wednesday, President Trump will sign an executive order instructing the Interior Department to review all national monuments designated by his predecessors back to January 1996, a potential first step in scaling back or even revoking some of the designations, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. The move appears aimed at two national monuments created in Utah by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, designated in September 1996, and especially Bears Ears National Monument, so named last December. "While no president has attempted to withdraw a monument named by a predecessor," The Salt Lake Tribune notes, "there have been those who have scaled back those designations."

Some of Utah's top officials have pushed for a scaling back or revocation of the Grand Staircase and Bears Ears monuments, including Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who said he had petitioned Trump to rescind the Bears Ears designation and tried "to ensure that this issue is a priority on the president's agenda." Land in Utah should be "managed by the Utahns [who] know them best and cherish them deeply," he said. A push to shield Bears Ears and other areas failed in Congress last year out of concern that the measure was too friendly to mining and other development interests, as well as concerns from Native Americans and environmentalists.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.