grand staircase escalante

The Interior Department defended reductions to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante after a survey found most Utah voters favor restoring protections.

Two-thirds of voters in Utah believe protections should be restored to the entire acreages of two national monuments that were recently downsized. That’s according to a statistically valid survey conducted by the research firm New Bridge Strategy and funded by Grand Canyon Trust.

Conservation groups, Indigenous tribes, and the outdoor retail company Patagonia have filed lawsuits over recent drastic cuts in the size of two national monuments in Utah.

More than 330 organizations and businesses have sent a letter to the Trump administration protesting the drastic reductions in two Utah national monuments.

President Trump is expected to reduce Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Conservation groups are preparing legal challenges, while Dolores County has reduced some Ferris Fire evacuation levels.

Conservation groups are expressing relief that Congress appears unlikely to throw out the management plan for Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Passage of a measure overturning a mining ban in a Minnesota wilderness area is raising concerns among environmentalists about its possible ramifications for the Four Corners. And the ongoing drought in the Four Corners is affecting conditions at a popular tourist attraction.

Representatives of indigenous tribes and conservation groups are voicing concern about an effort to eliminate the resource management plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.

A congressional resolution could roll back 2025 management rules for Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, sparking debate over land use and conservation.

Critics of Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument may employ a rarely used law to dramatically change how the monument is managed.