President Biden Restores Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

 It took nearly nine months, but President Biden restored the original boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments on October 8. Bears Ears now also includes 11,200 additional acres not part of the original proclamation but somewhat surprisingly added by Trump (I guess as sort of a "consolation prize") when he sliced its boundaries 85% in 2017.  Biden's proclamation was great, although I might have preferred the lawsuits against Trump's actions to be resolved (assuming the courts decided against Trump) so the same kind of thing couldn't happen with future presidents.  Of course there was always the possibility the courts could side with Trump, so perhaps it's better this way.  If any future president tries to do a similar hatchet job, we will just have to deal with it then.

You can read the Press Release from the U.S. Department of Interior HERE.

 

Hope for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante

 With President-Elect Biden's inauguration imminent, there's hope he will restore the two national monuments that Trump drastically reduced back to at least their original boundaries. It's one of his campaign promises and appears to be on his initial list of action items. Even many Utah officials want it to happen. Both the Grand County Commission and the San Juan County Commision have sent letters to Biden requesting that the Bears Ears original boundaries be restored. The town councils in Moab and Bluff sent similar letters. Being that this is Utah, though, not everyone is in favor. The towns of Blanding and Monticello have both objected to restoration of the original boundaries, claiming they were set without sufficient local input.

Soon after Trump's proclamation, numerous organizations and all five of the region's Native American Tribes filed lawsuits claiming the Antiquities Act did not give him the legal power to shrink the size of the monuments. The lawsuits are still languishing in the courts. Ideally, the courts would rule in favor of the plaintiffs, as this would establish a precedent against any similar actions a future president might consider, but the lawsuits will probably be dismissed as moot once Biden takes action. And since there is always a possibility the courts could rule in favor of Trump, it's probably best to let them be dismissed and fight again if the issue arises again in the future.

I've hiked much of the disputed area and agree it is important to be protected.  Here's one example of an Ancestral Puebloan ruin that was within the original boundary of Bears Ears but excluded after Trump's proclamation: