Trump strips protections from nearly 3 million acres at Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante
Special to the Times | Donovan Quintero
The Bears Ears buttes rise above the sagebrush landscape May 23, 2026. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation July 13 reducing Bears Ears National Monument from about 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres.
WINDOW ROCK
President Donald Trump signed proclamations July 13 removing nearly 3 million acres from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments as the Babylon Fire burned into Bears Ears.
The proclamations reduce Bears Ears from 1.36 million acres to about 121,100 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from 1.87 million acres to about 181,500 acres. The excluded lands are scheduled to open to new mining claims and mineral leasing Sept. 11, subject to existing withdrawals, valid rights and other federal requirements.
The Bears Ears proclamation also disbands the Bears Ears Commission, ending the five tribal nations’ collective advisory role through the commission.
Trump signed the proclamations in the Oval Office with Utah’s Republican federal delegation, Gov. Spencer Cox and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz. He described the monuments as closed to common public uses.
“You can’t go hunting. You can’t go fishing. You can’t do anything. You can virtually not even walk on it,” Trump said.
To read the full article, please see the July 16, 2026, edition of the Navajo Times.
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