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The Bureau of Land Management released resource management plans for the reduced Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, opening the areas President Trump removed from the monument to mining, drilling, and logging. The 2016 presidential order, an action still being challenged in court, attempted to eliminate more than 2 million acres from the two monuments.
When the administration announced it would conduct a review of existing monuments, more than 99 percent of Americans that commented on the proposal opposed shrinking or eliminating national monuments. Since the reductions, the Interior Department has spent $4.6 million developing management plans for the administrative actions that may be overruled in court.
"The only certainty today's announcement creates is of a long drawn-out court fight to stop yet another unprecedented attack on America's public lands by the Trump administration. With these plans, the administration is racing to allow new development on formerly protected public lands before the courts can overturn its illegal action," said Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn.
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