SALT LAKE CITY — Hundreds protested in locations all over the state against President Trump's decision to once again reduce the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.
Outside the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake City, a large crowd gathered and waved signs while chanting "vote them out" as cars drove by honking horns.
"The idea that they could just hum along through some presidential whim to steal lands that are protected already," said Terry Palmer.
Cody Chamblain said he opposed any changes to the monument boundaries.
"People need to know the true value of this land," he told FOX 13 News. "It’s not to be just extracted or sold up or chopped up or roads running every which way. It needs to be the way it is and protected for future generations."
Similar demonstrations occurred in Ogden, Provo, Moab and St. George. Protesters were angry not only with President Trump, but Utah's Republican political leaders who flanked him as he signed the executive orders to once again shrink the monuments.
"They don’t really respect national monuments, in my opinion," Richard Spotts said. "They don’t respect the history and sanctity of the Antiquities Act."
Trump shrinks Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments again:
Governor Spencer Cox's office had no comment on the demonstrations on Monday night.
President Clinton created Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument in 2016. In 2017, President Trump shrunk both monuments' boundaries. In 2021, President Biden reinstated them (and expanded Bears Ears). Last week, President Trump slashed both monuments' boundaries by roughly three million acres — or about 90%.
Utah political leaders have insisted they will protect the areas, but the monument designations as they were locked up too much land and were too broad. Tribal groups told FOX 13 News they were not consulted on this and claims that no one could access the areas under the old designations were simply not true.
"Tribal people do have an interest in our ancestral homelands," said Autumn Gillard with the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition. "We are not a people of the past. We are presently living here and interacting with our ancestral landscapes and we deserve the right to advocate for that and to speak for that."
Monday night's protests were crafted to energize people into pushing back on monument reductions, but environmental and tribal groups are also forming coalitions to take the Trump administration to court.
"We will be challenging these actions that we believe to be unlawful in federal court in due course," said Scott Braden, the executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
It will be the third legal action filed over the monuments. Environmental and tribal groups sued in 2017 when President Trump shrunk the monument boundaries the first time. The state of Utah, Kane and Garfield counties sued when President Biden reinstated them.
