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Utah County Commissioners Pass Resolution to Shrink Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Wolfgang Staudt
/
Creative Commons

County commissioners in Garfield County, Utah, have passed a resolution calling for shrinking the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is partially located in their county.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the commissioners took public comments Monday before making their decision. Monument supporters included the president of the Escalante-Boulder Chamber of Commerce, who said none of its members want to see the boundary changed. However, critics said the monument is stopping natural-resource extraction and is too large. The Kane County commissioners have already voted to support the resolution.

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.